Cele said a shortage of police officers was a national challenge and all of the country's police stations were undermanned. He blamed that on those who had succeeded him as police commissioner after his exit in 2012.
“In 2010 when I was a police commissioner we had 195,000 police and we had a population of 50 million. Now we have 176,000 police in a population of 60.3 million people. So whoever followed when I left did a good job to destroy the police,” he said.
“Fortunately, the president and Treasury have given [us the budget to recruit] 10,000 police this year. They are currently being trained in college. But remember we are 20,000 down from 2010. We will have another 20,000 [recruits] next year, so that will put us in 2010 figures, not 2022. That’s 12 years of no growth in the police.”
Busani Ngcobo, from Bhekithemba police station, asked for officers from outside Umlazi to be deployed in the township in December when police trainees currently in colleges are placed.
“When you were born or raised here you will obviously have friends and family in the township which makes it hard for you to do your job as a police officer, like arresting them. That’s one of the contributing factors to the crime,” he said.
Cele blamed the department of public works for failing to build police stations or maintain existing ones.
“The access of the police stations is not necessarily the issue of the police. They are built by the department of public works. The money that we roll over the most, that we fail to spend as police, is the money to build police stations because public works don’t build them for us. So understand your government and fight the right people,” he said.
“That includes the maintenance of police stations. Our police are working under terrible conditions. You will enter a police station and see that nobody would look forward to leave home and come to this. So if we can get someone else to build police stations because public works is not the one.”
Mkhwanazi highlighted challenges with resources in government garages, saying they end up having to outsource about 80% of their vehicles to private garages.
“We are supposed to have at least 80% of police vehicles being serviced at a government garage and 20% in private garages but unfortunately it’s the other way round because of resource challenges. But we are buying some critical equipment that the garage didn’t have,” he said.
Cele said the upcoming crime statistics would show Umlazi has the highest number of murders in the country. However, there had been progress in other areas.
Though there is still a long way to go, Cele said the police were doing their best in the fight against gender-based violence in an “abnormal” society, as evidenced by the over-population of prisons and the number of people serving life sentences for women and child abuse.
“Prisons are overpopulated by 33%. Those people did not volunteer to go there, they were arrested by police officers.
“In a normal society we would be calling for the building of universities and hospitals, but we're not a normal society.”
On the scourge of gender-based violence, Cele said: “Those that are in for the assault of women and rape, 6,000 of them are doing life. I'm not talking about those doing 50 years or 40 years, I'm just talking about those serving life sentences. That means police did a good job in the investigations, making a strong case for the magistrates to grant those sentences.”
He commended Umlazi police officials' efforts to combat rape, saying that the upcoming statistics will show that the township has moved out of the top four for rape cases.
“You had always been in the top alongside Inanda, Thohoyandou and Lusikisiki. So concentrate on those efforts and spend more time on fighting [other crimes] in unison like you have done in the fight against rape.”
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Poor working conditions for police in crime-ridden Umlazi in spotlight as top brass pledge to help
Image: Nqubeko Mbhele
Police in Umlazi southwest of Durban are making inroads in the fight against gender-based violence despite a shortage of resources — which will be addressed before the end of the year.
This is according to police minister Bheki Cele and KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, who on Saturday held a consultative meeting with community leaders.
The biggest concerns raised were the need for more police stations and personnel as well as a shortage of police vehicles.
Muke Mlotshwa, from the department of health, said it was appalling that the second-biggest township in the country only had two police stations.
She said criminals were terrorising nurses and patients inside clinics and they now need police escorts to conduct community outreach duties because most of their vehicles were stolen during door-to-door programmes. Sixteen department vehicles had been stolen since last year — 12 of which have since been recovered. Twelve private vehicles belonging to doctors and nurses had also been stolen.
Msizi Mabaso, the councillor of ward 84 where the Bhekithemba police station is located, said there were only two vehicles available to attend to complaints and not enough police for the areas and number of people the station serves.
“There are 153,274 people under the jurisdiction of the Bhekithemba police station according to a report I received this week. The station has 101 police officials — 74 are police and 27 are employed by public works,” he said.
EThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said, contrary to what the last official statistics estimate, there were now more than one million people living in Umlazi. He conceded police have challenges but called for existing resources to be used where they are needed the most.
“In Durban North and Umhlanga there are many police stations that are close to each other with each of them having a lot of police vehicles. I’m not saying there is no crime in there because there is. Businesses are being robbed and clothes are being stolen from the washing line. But on this side people are dying, yet there are only a few police vans available. That is unacceptable, we need to the rationalise the existing resources,” he said.
Mkhwanazi promised the vacancies would be filled and new police vehicles would be provided to police stations before the end of the year.
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Cele said a shortage of police officers was a national challenge and all of the country's police stations were undermanned. He blamed that on those who had succeeded him as police commissioner after his exit in 2012.
“In 2010 when I was a police commissioner we had 195,000 police and we had a population of 50 million. Now we have 176,000 police in a population of 60.3 million people. So whoever followed when I left did a good job to destroy the police,” he said.
“Fortunately, the president and Treasury have given [us the budget to recruit] 10,000 police this year. They are currently being trained in college. But remember we are 20,000 down from 2010. We will have another 20,000 [recruits] next year, so that will put us in 2010 figures, not 2022. That’s 12 years of no growth in the police.”
Busani Ngcobo, from Bhekithemba police station, asked for officers from outside Umlazi to be deployed in the township in December when police trainees currently in colleges are placed.
“When you were born or raised here you will obviously have friends and family in the township which makes it hard for you to do your job as a police officer, like arresting them. That’s one of the contributing factors to the crime,” he said.
Cele blamed the department of public works for failing to build police stations or maintain existing ones.
“The access of the police stations is not necessarily the issue of the police. They are built by the department of public works. The money that we roll over the most, that we fail to spend as police, is the money to build police stations because public works don’t build them for us. So understand your government and fight the right people,” he said.
“That includes the maintenance of police stations. Our police are working under terrible conditions. You will enter a police station and see that nobody would look forward to leave home and come to this. So if we can get someone else to build police stations because public works is not the one.”
Mkhwanazi highlighted challenges with resources in government garages, saying they end up having to outsource about 80% of their vehicles to private garages.
“We are supposed to have at least 80% of police vehicles being serviced at a government garage and 20% in private garages but unfortunately it’s the other way round because of resource challenges. But we are buying some critical equipment that the garage didn’t have,” he said.
Cele said the upcoming crime statistics would show Umlazi has the highest number of murders in the country. However, there had been progress in other areas.
Though there is still a long way to go, Cele said the police were doing their best in the fight against gender-based violence in an “abnormal” society, as evidenced by the over-population of prisons and the number of people serving life sentences for women and child abuse.
“Prisons are overpopulated by 33%. Those people did not volunteer to go there, they were arrested by police officers.
“In a normal society we would be calling for the building of universities and hospitals, but we're not a normal society.”
On the scourge of gender-based violence, Cele said: “Those that are in for the assault of women and rape, 6,000 of them are doing life. I'm not talking about those doing 50 years or 40 years, I'm just talking about those serving life sentences. That means police did a good job in the investigations, making a strong case for the magistrates to grant those sentences.”
He commended Umlazi police officials' efforts to combat rape, saying that the upcoming statistics will show that the township has moved out of the top four for rape cases.
“You had always been in the top alongside Inanda, Thohoyandou and Lusikisiki. So concentrate on those efforts and spend more time on fighting [other crimes] in unison like you have done in the fight against rape.”
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