The community of Olievenhoutbosch north of Johannesburg has asked Police Minister Bheki Cele to shut down the local police station with immediate effect.
The community used the crime Imbizo to urge the minister to replace all the officers including the station commissioner. Minister Cele’s interaction with the community followed a number of anti-crime protests.
The #SAPSImbizo started with an inspection of the Olievenhoutbosch police station. Minister Cele was joined by @GP_CommSafety MEC @FaithMazibukoSA. #PartnershipPolicing pic.twitter.com/D0HKLrUG6r
— GP Community Safety (@GP_CommSafety) May 31, 2021
The community says Gender-Based Violence, break ins and armed robberies are common crimes in Olievenhoutbosch. They accused the local police of failing to arrest criminals who are known for terrorizing the community. They allege, among others, undocumented foreign nationals as those taking a lead in the commission of crime.
“The crime that’s currently here is violent crime mostly done by undocumented nationals, Zimbabweans who are killing our people here with unlicensed firearms and Nigerians feeding our kids with drugs. We need new personnel and a fully functional police station, fully capacitated with necessary tools that we need from the minister and Department of Public Works to avail budget to build a new police station here.”
“We are pleading with the minister to bring in soldiers. Most criminals we’ve caught are people from outside our country.”
There’s no Community Policing Forum (CPF) structure in the area. CPF chairperson in Gauteng Thokozani Masilela says this has collapsed the entire relationship between the police and the community to jointly fight crime in the area.
“We need an interim committee as soon as possible that’s what we need to do. There’s big political interference in this area. Hope the minister and the MEC will take care of that. So from there, we make sure that we work but the station manager and others should be removed from this police station.”
Police Minister Bheki Cele says it’s unacceptable that there are over 1 000 undetected criminals in Olievenhoutbosch. Residents expressed their frustration about the escalating crime in the area.
Cele promised to speedily look into the concerns raised by the community while making sure the said criminals are arrested as soon as possible.
“There are more than 1 000 people here who have committed crime and not arrested. We need to work on them. Half of them must be arrested in the shortest time. So we need to create a special unit to look into that because there’s no way we can win against crime if that is not done.”
Cele says it is like a thorn in the flesh that the local police station is rated number 47 out of the 140 police stations with the highest number of reported crimes.
Most of the cases have not been fully investigated due to shortages of detectives. Cele has also urged the prosecution authority to be part of the crime combating effort.
