Residents in east of Pretoria have lost faith in non-functioning Boschkop police station
|Published
Residents have complained that Boschkop police station in Pretoria east is not serving the community properly. Picture: Oupa Mokoena/African News Agency (ANA)
Pretoria - The community of Boschkop in Pretoria east say they have lost faith in their local police station over the lack of human and physical resources at the station.
And they prefer to travel longer to other police stations if they need to, they said.
Asking to remain anonymous for fear of victimisation, one resident said the police station had not helped the residents with anything and had proved useless to them over the years.
“The problem has been going on for years. We have been complaining for many years. I have lived here for many years and remember back when it opened, we were happy to have law enforcement in our midst.
“But right now and over time it proved to be the most useless police station you will ever find. You cannot phone them. Their phones are always off and at some point they had their answering machine on where we would leave a message and where they promised to get back to us, but did not.
“When you report an incident where someone is attacked they tell you that they do not have petrol. When you go there for help they refuse to help,” another said.
Another said he could point out more residents who could testify that they had never got assistance from that police station.
“We went to the police station to lodge a complaint recently about a shebeen that is operating illegally, and no one bothered to help. The police can be seen having lunch with those people.
“We called the commissioner, and after he intervened the police came back to us three days later and said there was no case.”
One man said his horsebox wheels were stolen and was told not to touch it by the police as they needed to lift fingerprints, but they never came.
“Six weeks later they have done nothing.”
The joint agreement from the community was tackling the problem by starting from the top. Said one community member: “The top management needs to tell the middle management to tell the lower management to resolve the issues that the station faces.”
Another resident who also did not want to be named for safety reasons, said they were not happy with the station’s reliability, not having cars, and not being accessible, even by phone.
“It is not just the police station, the residents at this stage do not want to report crimes because it is difficult to get help.”
Residents in the nearby Skirliek, who said they do not know much about the police station even though they are supposed to be using it, said it was far from them. They needed to pay R50 to go to the station.
And while the police spokesperson was not available to respond to questions on the allegations yesterday, the DA said it had recently conducted an oversight inspection at the police station, and had engaged with the management of the station and the Community Policing Forum to discuss the challenges they are faced with.
The DA said Boschkop consisted of mostly informal settlements and farms, and it was not practical for police officers to have only one vehicle for visibility in those areas.
“Without the necessary resources, the station is unable to do visible policing within this rural and farming community.
“Moreover, the cells in the station have been closed after a suspect escaped. They have not yet been repaired or maintained. There is no space for any suspects who get arrested. Detainees are now being transported and charged at Garsfontein police station which is 20km away.”
The community said this, too, was a problem, as Garsfontein was too far to reach, both to see arrested relatives and report crime effectively.
Pretoria News