Pretoria - Police officers at Rietgat police station in Soshanguve, which was hit by cable theft three years ago, have been forced to work without electricity despite their appeals for power from Eskom to be restored.
The Pretoria News was told the station relied on generators.
However, some police officers, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said generators were used at night.
They claimed the generators would sometimes run out of petrol in the night, leaving them in the lurch.
They said life was becoming increasingly difficult as they were unable to even charge their phones or boil water for tea or coffee, especially during the day.
According to them, their pleas to their superiors to address the situation urgently fell on deaf ears.
The police station is a stone’s throw from the Mabopane train station and for years relied on electricity from the Passenger Rail Agency of SA. Three years ago, it experienced power outages when the train station was vandalised and cables were stolen.
Despite that, power was restored after it affected the running of trains The police station, however, was still without power.
Police spokesperson Steven Maluleka said: “What I can say is that we have two generators we use to power electricity at the police station.”
He said there had been one instance only when generators had run short of petrol, leaving officers without power at night, and it was a long time ago.
There were concerns that residents felt unsafe to report crimes to the station at night because of the unreliable power.
Maluleka said the station was frequently in contact with residents to keep them informed about unforeseen situations.
He said there was a platform on which residents could express their feelings about the station’s operations.
Maluleka said there was a long-term solution in the offing to sort out the problem and that generators would be there only as a back-up in the event of load shedding.
“Plans are at an advanced stage to solve the problem and generators will be used as back-ups,” he said.
Maluleka said lack of power supply had not affected operations at the station.
In recent years, the police station has been the second in Tshwane to operate without power due to cable theft and vandalism.
In May, last year, the SAPS officers at Ga-Rankuwa police station were forced to work without power due to theft of cables feeding electricity from an Eskom sub-station.
As a result of the blackout, the police working at night often used their cellphones to provide them with alternative lighting.
It would seem the situation, affected the services to residents as the police were said to be unable to access the 10111 line due to the lack of wi-fi as a result of the unavailability of electricity.
Eskom has yet to comment on the matter.
Pretoria News