T he Star reader Busi Msimango sent through the letter below, complaining about the bad and unprofessional service she received at the Jabulani police station.
There to report a case of burglary at her home, she arrived at 3.30pm and was attended to only at 8.45pm – and still the police failed to take fingerprints.
What irked her even more is that a teenage girl who arrived around the same time to report a rape was attended to only at 7pm, with no privacy for her.
The Star decided to send the letter to the Jabulani police station, and this was the response from spokesman Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela: “A decision was taken after consultation with the (SAPS Gauteng) province that a senior officer from the station be appointed to investigate the matter.
“We’ve never had such a complaint at the station before, that is why we are taking the matter so seriously. The province ordered that it be dealt with at station level.”
On October 2 I arrived at my Jabulani, Soweto, home to find that it was burgled. I then went to Jabulani police station at 3.30pm and found eight people waiting to be served by one police officer in the charge office.
We waited until I asked if there was no one else to assist, and the police officer confirmed that they were understaffed and that most of their officers went on a workshop, and unfortunately he is all we have until the next shift, which starts at 6pm when he leaves.
It baffled me since there were six other officers chatting about nothing at the front desk. They were screaming at the top of their lungs. The officer went on to tell us how useless it would be if we complained to the station commander.
One of the people waiting was a girl, who looked about 15 years old to me. She came in at about the same time that we arrived to lay a statutory rape charge. She was not attended to until 7pm. She was sent from one officer to another with no sense of privacy, urgency, nor shame at the matter at hand. There was no consideration of how this young girl has been tormented.
The partitions in some offices appeared to have been vandalised, so the police use that office as a kitchen, with their window seal (sic) a display unit for coffee, margarine, sugar, glasses and cups.
How disgusting! This is meant to be a public office, where the community gets served and protected!
After the parade (marking the shift change), five female officers came in, completely ignored us – members of the community they are meant to serve.
They were all dressed in full uniform, looking as decent as a police officer should – neat, dignified and in charge. But that was until they opened their mouths.
They went on about their weekend shenanigans, make-up and someone’s bed being unstable.
What rubbish! How dare they not greet us and ask if we’ve been assisted. Instead they were fixing their make-up, chatting about their private lives – right in front of people who are there to ask for a service, protection, sympathy… Those female officers chatted for about 40min until some obviously important man walked in, to whom they saluted.
I asked him how they ran their community operations, when officers are allowed to come in and not do one human act – greet – and find out why we are sitting in their environment.
And let me tell you, one officer had loads to say about how she wasn’t going to work in the crime office that night. She wasn’t going to work there alone and, in fact, it’s not her fault that we weren’t helped earlier. She stormed out after we had an intense exchange of words.
It was now our fault that this poor woman chose to be a public servant at a police station in the most crime-infested area in Soweto.
It was our fault as the community that she vowed to serve and protect. It was our fault that we sat there in a disgustingly dirty office waiting forever for someone to help, comfort, empathise with a teenager that was assaulted.
Sadly it was the same officer who had to take the teenager’s statement… How is it that you feel a difference at police stations in Randburg, Moroka, Kliptown and Diepkloof. At those police stations, you feel that you’ve walked into a state building. It is run with pride, kept clean, the operations are smooth and defined.
Jabulani police station was revamped not so long ago, but it’s such a garbage dump, you want to disinfect after your visit there.
I’m saddened by the state of affairs in that office, especially when there are those within that group who go an extra mile, but get conditions that are not driving self-pride and dignified service delivery.
I’m disgusted by the lack of leadership in that station. We finally got someone to come home with us at 8.45pm, but no fingerprints were taken. So I ask: What was the purpose of that drive to my home?
I’m perplexed and gutted about the teenager who had suffered such a grave loss of innocence and had to be taken to a sad and unfriendly environment like Jabulani police station.