The Democratic Alliance in Msunduzi will today hand over a memorandum to the Plessislaer Station Commander after it was revealed that 16 of 57 (almost a third) of SAPS vehicles are non-operational. The information is contained in a parliamentary question to the department of police on the number of SAPS vehicles allocated to this station.
The DA in Msunduzi also held a picket on Monday outside the police station to highlight the inefficiency of the station and bring to light the need for better services.
The Plessislaer police station services the eMbali Township in the Msunduzi Municipality which notoriously took over the top position as South Africa’s murder capital last year and still remains as one of South Africa’s top four murder capitals.
Residents of eMbali live in fear for their lives. To name a few incidents, entire families have been gunned down in their own homes in the last months, whilst a taxi boss was murdered last week. The lawlessness that has prevailed is attributed to a number of factors including a breakdown between community structures and the police, diminishing policing resources and a proliferation in the availability of illegal firearms.
The DA calls for the following urgent interventions:
- SAPS to urgently get all vehicles back on the road;
- SAPS inspectorate to conduct an urgent visit to Plessislaer station to assess whether the station meets standards;
- SAPS must establish better working relationships with community policing and neighbourhood watch structures
Government would do well to heed the successful interventions of the DA-run City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government which successfully managed to bring down the murder rate in Nyanga, SA’s previous murder capital, by 34%. CPF sector forums, neighbourhood watch structures, and additional policing resources such as the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) are a few key interventions that could be adopted to address the murder rate and criminal activity in the eMbali community.
The residents of eMbali will continue to be terrorised by criminal elements unless immediate changes are implemented. The DA will continue to fight for the safety and peace of mind of all our residents.