Parliamentary committee shocked that Nongoma police don't have cellphones and enough vehicles

01 August 2017 - 16:48 By Bongani Mthethwa
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SAPS vehicle. File photo.
SAPS vehicle. File photo.
Image: Reuben Goldberg

Dysfunctional wall clocks‚ a shortage of police vehicles‚ radios in police vehicles not properly working and cellphone shortages are among a litany of problems faced by the Nongoma Police Station in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

These were some of the issues that were encountered by parliament' s portfolio committee on police on Tuesday during their inspection of the rural police station‚ which also services Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini and the royal family.

The committee‚ which began its assessment of KwaZulu-Natal policing with a visit to Richards Bay‚ will be in the province for the whole week.

Committee chairman Francois Beukman was shocked that the clocks were not working in the detective services and boardroom.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

The committee also heard that the station has only 36 vehicles to police 244‚000 people and 19 of these vehicles were in the garage for repairs.

At least six 4x4 vehicles were allocated for the station in the past six months to deal with the harsh terrain.

Beukman was very about concerned about this‚ saying it meant that the availability of vehicles was below 50%.

"That's totally unacceptable and we need an intervention there. We can't have effective service delivery to the people if we don't have enough vehicles to service people‚ especially in a rural area like this one."

He also voiced concern about the shortage of cellphones which are vital for public sector policing.

It transpired that there were no cellphone contracts in place‚ according to police management.

The committee also heard that the station was affected by a high rate of absenteeism during the night shift and that the men and women in blue were also not keen to report for duty between May and June - probably because of the winter cold.

A total of 16 cases of misconduct were also imitated against the police officers last year for assault‚ negligent and drunken driving‚ absenteeism and failure to follow instructions.

But despite all of that the committee was dissatisfied that they did not get all the information they wanted for their report which will be submitted to parliament.

"There is a bit of a struggle to get information from the station‚" remarked Beukman.

However‚ he gave management until Friday to provide the committee will all the outstanding information.

Responding to complaints from police management about lack of enough manpower for the Public Order Policing‚ acting provincial police commissioner Bhekinkosi Langa said: "KZN is on fire in terms of activities that are taking place. POP is servicing the whole province. Those are the situations we are facing."

He said the issue of a shortage of vehicles needed to be looked into.


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