EDITOR – An open letter to Capt Van Der Spuy of SAPS Amanzimtoti, regarding the article on the crime reporting board in the South Coast Sun dated 29 August.
The information contained in the article forced me to seek clarity.
As a reasonable person, the conclusion I reached is that the initiative originated from SAPS head office in Pretoria, as the champion of this project.
By implication our local police office in Amanzimtoti is sidelined, as SAPS head office directly deals with complaints. Complaints about service delivery problems with our local police station can be done anonymously and dropped in these boxes. These boxes will be emptied once a month.
Any reasonable person will agree that month old tip-offs and information regarding crime are useless. The primary reason therefore can only be for these boxes to give feedback on our local SAPS service delivery to police headquarters in Pretoria.
It was interesting but not surprising to note the real champions of these boxes are the same people who were on national TV, responsible for the unjustified ‘vote of no confidence’ from a minuscule minority of less than 20 people in our Amanzimtoti police station.
Another disturbing fact is the telephone number indicated in the SUN does not exist. The cell phone was answered by a Pieter van Wyk and after unsatisfactory answers to questions, he handed the cell to his brother, who also identified himself as Pieter van Wyk. The latter confirmed he is the national manager and his brother with the same name is the provincial manager.
I put on record – the national manager could not convince me of the fact that SAPS is the owner of this crime reporting board initiative. At the end, the national manager did say they and SAPS are in partnership on this project.
I am a loyal South African and have to date received professional service from our local SAPS but am a very concerned citizen and not a supporter of these boxes. The most disturbing fact is it seems anybody is allowed, without the majority support of a constituency or the majority of people serviced by the police station or consultation with your office, to act in this way, which can have far-reaching ramifications. I shall be glad if you could give the correct status and opinion from SAPS perspective.
I thank you.
Tommy Ackermann Snr
Ed’s note: This letter was forwarded to SAP Amanzimtoti for comment, however no response was forthcoming.
