Khayelitsha cops satisfactory: colonel

The operational performance of Khayelitsha's three police stations had been deemed satisfactory, the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry heard.

This was the testimony of Colonel Deon Vermeulen -- responsible for performance management in the Western Cape.

He gave commissioners statistics on the performance of the three police stations.

"They actually increased their performance... to 60 percent," Vermeulen said of the Khayelitsha police station.

A table shown to the commission showed the station was placed sixth in terms of performance when compared to other stations headed by a brigadier.

The efficiency rate at the station went from 43 percent in the 2007/2008 financial year to 60 percent the following year.

The rate went down to 54 percent in 2009/10 and back up to 65 percent the next year. By 2012/13 it stood at 60 percent.

The zigzagging figures were questioned by commission chairwoman Judge Kate O'Regan.

"It just seems odd that stations are moving around so dramatically," O'Regan said.

Vermeulen said a number of factors could be responsible for this, including that a different tool for measuring performance was used a few years ago.

"The one year crime goes down, the next year it goes up," he said, offering another explanation.

Vermeulen joins a number of other senior police officers who have testified in phase one of the commission's hearings so far.

The commission was set up by Western Cape Premier Helen Zille after complaints of police inefficiency in Khayelitsha.

The move was met with resistance by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa who went as far as the Constitutional Court to block the commission.

Mthethwa lost his court bid in October last year.