Durban — The KwaZulu-Natal legislature oversight visit to 55 police stations in the province exposed the problems the police were facing on the ground.
The community safety portfolio committee’s report on its 2022 Police Stations Functionality Monitoring Programme was tabled before the legislature on Thursday.
The 2022 World Crime Index by Country, showed South Africa is in fourth place (76.6%) among 142 countries and first in Africa followed by Cameroon. KwaZulu-Natal is ranked among the three provinces worst affected by crime.
The police functionality oversight was based on a sample of 55 stations out of 184 stations visited by members.
Themes covered crime; human resources; station resources; detective services; infrastructure and stakeholder and community engagement.
Between January and March 2022, 6 083 people were murdered in South Africa – 898 women and 306 children. Police Minister Bheki Cele reported the first three months of 2022 as violent, brutal and unsafe. South Africans face death daily – when leaving their homes, they cannot be guaranteed a safe return.
The shortage of HR is among the top service delivery challenges. The provincial SAPS reported a high vacancy rate of 72 senior-level posts.
Out of 4 227 vehicles allocated across 184 police stations in KZN, 1 716 vehicles are at workshops awaiting repairs. Most of these vehicles are not suitable for the terrain hence they break down constantly.
The report noted that at most stations visited, the commanders seemed surprised to witness shortcomings in their stations.
Police stations reported that they must drive to Amanzimtoti for ballistic analysis and reports. The ballistic centre is overburdened causing results to be received late. The committee recommended the SAPS decentralise the ballistic centre by forming clusters.
The report noted a shortage in police specialised units and said the Premier’s Bursary Fund must prioritise forensic studies.
It was noted that drug manufacturing, distribution, sales and abuse is at a high in Phoenix and neighbouring Inanda and Bhambayi. These increases go hand in hand with murders and various other crimes.
Minority Front (MF) leader Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi called for a SA Revenue Service (Sars) rebate for residents who hire private security companies to protect their homes.
She said the province’s limited role of oversight in concurrence with national must be reviewed, given the 24-hour criminal activities everywhere. Thakur-Rajbansi said crime WhatsApp groups are the busiest, so much so that new political parties are mushrooming just based on crime.
“Currently, private crime-prevention companies are protecting the community at a cost. Until our government can bring crime under control, it is only fair for residents to get a Sars rebate to protect themselves.”
Thakur-Rajbansi believes this is a valid request because Sars gives rebates for managing crises where people are forced to be out of pocket.
DA spokesperson on community safety MPL Sharon Hoosen said the debate on the report was cancelled three times. Hoosen said to compile the programme for functionality oversight the researchers were given the run around. The report referred to this behaviour as “gatekeeping”.
Hoosen said the SAPS was preventing MPLs from conducting their duties. Hoosen said the programme has been conducted for years and nothing has changed.
Hoosen said communities were aware that the SAPS is understaffed, under-resourced, and cannot respond timeously; and phone lines in most cases don’t work.
Daily News