SEBOKENG. – The accessibility of police stations in most communities of Sebokeng and surrounding areas are not getting the adequate policing services they deserve because the police stations are too far to access.

This was revealed by Build One South Africa (BOSA) Sedibeng Chairperson, Botiki Nkopane who also said that police facilities need to be located closer to the people. Nkopane added that although there are about ten fully-fledged police stations in the Sedibeng Cluster, several isolated community areas are scattered throughout the critical locations per zone where poor accessibility results in long travel times, particularly in the main towns/townships.

“Consideration must be given to optimizing the locations of police stations by integrating access norms and standards into the criteria used by the SAPS to identify new and old locations that must be given priority by implementing measures such as putting up satellite police stations at optimal sites identified and wherever such recommendations see fit.”

According to Nkopane, in Sebokeng the most notable and affected communities are Small Farms, Residensia, Zone 6,7,8, and a potion that covers Lakeside Proper, Eatonside, and far Tshepong.

“Considering the size of the population and the number of existing police stations, there are presently too few to cover all of the above-mentioned parts of areas forcing people to travel more than an hour to get access to the closest police station. Build One South Africa, cannot continue to allow people to walk so much distances or even drive more than 40 kilometers just to access these critical services such as police stations. Build One South Africa (BOSA) strongly recommends that each zone area must have First Community Responders ‘Contact Points’ and that, Satellite Police Stations must be considered.”