by: Councillor Luan Snyders: DA Councillor, Rustenburg Local Municipality
On Monday, 22 June 2020, the Democratic Alliance (DA) conducted an oversight inspection at Boitekong Police Station in Rustenburg and from our engagements with local police officers, we found that there are serious issues that require urgent attention to ensure that police officers can prevent, fight and investigate crime, as well as ensuring the safety and security of 20 surrounding rural communities.
The police station suffers from consistent electricity failures, especially at night from around 5pm until midnight. The DA in Rustenburg will continue to engage the municipality to ensure that the problems with electricity supply at the police station are permanently resolved. We will also motivate that the municipality prioritise street lighting in the surrounding area.
The station’s perimeter fence is completely dilapidated and is regularly vandalised by smugglers moving drugs and weapons into the holding cells situated close to the fence. Perimeter and street lighting around the station are also in disrepair.
Police officers are overworked due to staff shortages and do not have access to adequate resources to conduct their duties effectively. Only two police vehicles are available per shift to patrol the extensive area of the 20 scattered communities. This hampers the station’s response time to safety and security call outs as well as delay investigations into criminal activities.
From our engagements, it appears that support and the mobilisation of resources to assist the station to bring improvements are very much delayed and is precisely the reason why the DA is fighting to devolve policing to a provincial level so that the management of policing is brought closer to the community.
We will write to the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service (CSPS) to investigate these concerns at the station to make recommendations to the SAPS to improve the allocation of resources and improve maintenance. The Boitekong Police Station requires additional vehicles, additional police officers, a new and secure perimeter fence and lighting.
Rural communities are easy prey to violent and brutal crimes as a result of government failure to ensure that the police are well-trained and well-resourced.
Where the DA governs in the Western Cape, the DA has invested over R1 billion towards a safety plan which will ensure that 3000 new law enforcement officers and 150 investigators are recruited and trained to combat crime.
Media Enquiries:
Cllr Luan Snyders
DA Councillor: Rustenburg Local Municipality
064 659 0363
Idah Satikhe
DA North West Communications Officer
079 700 5382