Residents of Kokomeng in Taung, North West, have expressed regret over their actions four years ago. Residents destroyed and torched a satellite police station in 2018 during service delivery protests.
They are now calling for the refurbishment of the local police station, which used to serve 12 villages in the BaGa-Maidi Cluster.
The community was demanding the maintenance of a road between Matsheng and Molelema villages. Four years later, the road is still in a bad condition. Residents say they are now travelling almost 50 kilometres to access the Taung police station. These residents are calling on the government to repair the destroyed police station.
A request that they say comes with remorse. The Kokomeng express their concerns saying, “We can no longer get the service here but we have to travel about 50 kilos, from here to Taung police station where we can access saps services. Not only that, you should at least have R100 for the taxi fare.”
“Burning buildings is not good. it’s not the best option. Look now, we are struggling it affects service delivery and the crime rate has now picked up.”
“We need a police station, can government please help us.”
The police say the national supply chain management offices are handling the refurbishment of the Kokomeng police station.
Provincial SAPS spokesperson Sabata Mokgwabone says, “We are also concerned about members of the community who resort to damaging the property, especially, government properties whenever they have concerns or are dissatisfied about service delivery. They are the ones who end up being affected by the very thing they caused. But what we can say with regard to the refurbishment of Kokomeng satellite station is that the matter is being dealt with by our head office supply chain management and public works.”
SAPS Supply Chain Management office is yet to confirm if this station will be refurbished anytime soon.
Kokomeng villagers regret setting Police Station on fire:”
