An Eastern Cape police station responsible for 16 rural villages, 10 farms and two coastal holiday towns, has no police patrol vehicle to fight crime.
The Mooiplaas police station, which is 30km outside East London, is policing an estimated 20000 people.
For the past year they’ve been operating on empty, with only one vehicle – a Corsa utility bakkie.
But the workhorse bakkie has now broken down, and according to a police source, has been in and out of the police garage in East London for repairs
As a result, to attend to crime scenes, Mooiplaas police have to borrow police vans from a nearby police station. New Mooiplaas station commander, Captain Mlindeli Higa, who joined the station this month, has no state vehicle. If they are lucky, the 20 officers at the station use the station’s detective’s bakkie to attend to complaints.
But now, the Mooiplaas police are tired of this predicament. A few spoke to Saturday Dispatch, saying they could not do their work because of a lack of support from their provincial office.
“One of these days the community will revolt against us because of the current situation we are in. We can’t even go to the nearest village to attend complaints because we have no vehicles,” said an officer, who wanted to remain anonymous.
Another officer said two residents from Slatsha community, less than 500m from the station, died last month because of crime-related conflicts. “Having police vehicles we could have attended to those calls, but we failed the community,” the officer said.
Thugs were taking advantage of the situation.
An officer said: “They know that we don’t have vehicles. We really don’t need this. They can just give us the horses from the mounted unit”.
A villager, No-Amen Mqeni from Dipini location, said the situation was embarrassing. “My child broke my house windows because he was drunk and unruly and we called the police but they could not respond. They said they don’t have vehicles.”
Mqeni was only assisted after she called a former station commander.
“Then a police vehicle was borrowed from a nearby Blue Water police station. People have harmed each other here because of lack of police visibility,” she said.
Resident, Mabongo Dlamini, said that in Sotho village taverns were open 24/7 because there were no police to monitor their hours.
“Each village in Mooiplaas has over 1000 people and imagine all 16 villages without policing. Sotho village is worse. There are assault cases and rape cases that are reported from other villages as well but suspects leave without being arrested because of this,” Dlamini said.
Provincial police spokeswoman, Colonel Sibongile Soci, said Mooiplaas SAPS was a small station with a low volume of crime reported each month.
She said resources, like vehicles, were allocated in terms of the layout and policing needed to deliver an adequate service.
“The station records indicate that the station has never failed to attend to crime scenes or calls for assistance. There is always a vehicle dispatched to attend to crime incidents reported.”
She said it was not the policy of the SAPS to divulge operational information.
“It must be kept in mind that SAPS vehicles are utilised on a 24-hour basis and will, from time to time, be taken to the garages for mechanical failure and or servicing, and that is the case for Mooiplaas.”
She said SAPS supply chain staff were in constant consultation with the cluster commanders to have a plan ready to deal with vehicle shortages and to plan for the allocation of vehicles as soon as the delivery was received.
Police station out on a limb
The Mooiplaas police station, which is 30km outside East London, is policing an estimated 20000 people.
For the past year they’ve been operating on empty, with only one vehicle – a Corsa utility bakkie.
But the workhorse bakkie has now broken down, and according to a police source, has been in and out of the police garage in East London for repairs
As a result, to attend to crime scenes, Mooiplaas police have to borrow police vans from a nearby police station. New Mooiplaas station commander, Captain Mlindeli Higa, who joined the station this month, has no state vehicle. If they are lucky, the 20 officers at the station use the station’s detective’s bakkie to attend to complaints.
But now, the Mooiplaas police are tired of this predicament. A few spoke to Saturday Dispatch, saying they could not do their work because of a lack of support from their provincial office.
“One of these days the community will revolt against us because of the current situation we are in. We can’t even go to the nearest village to attend complaints because we have no vehicles,” said an officer, who wanted to remain anonymous.
Another officer said two residents from Slatsha community, less than 500m from the station, died last month because of crime-related conflicts. “Having police vehicles we could have attended to those calls, but we failed the community,” the officer said.
Thugs were taking advantage of the situation.
An officer said: “They know that we don’t have vehicles. We really don’t need this. They can just give us the horses from the mounted unit”.
A villager, No-Amen Mqeni from Dipini location, said the situation was embarrassing. “My child broke my house windows because he was drunk and unruly and we called the police but they could not respond. They said they don’t have vehicles.”
Mqeni was only assisted after she called a former station commander.
“Then a police vehicle was borrowed from a nearby Blue Water police station. People have harmed each other here because of lack of police visibility,” she said.
Resident, Mabongo Dlamini, said that in Sotho village taverns were open 24/7 because there were no police to monitor their hours.
“Each village in Mooiplaas has over 1000 people and imagine all 16 villages without policing. Sotho village is worse. There are assault cases and rape cases that are reported from other villages as well but suspects leave without being arrested because of this,” Dlamini said.
Provincial police spokeswoman, Colonel Sibongile Soci, said Mooiplaas SAPS was a small station with a low volume of crime reported each month.
She said resources, like vehicles, were allocated in terms of the layout and policing needed to deliver an adequate service.
“The station records indicate that the station has never failed to attend to crime scenes or calls for assistance. There is always a vehicle dispatched to attend to crime incidents reported.”
She said it was not the policy of the SAPS to divulge operational information.
“It must be kept in mind that SAPS vehicles are utilised on a 24-hour basis and will, from time to time, be taken to the garages for mechanical failure and or servicing, and that is the case for Mooiplaas.”
She said SAPS supply chain staff were in constant consultation with the cluster commanders to have a plan ready to deal with vehicle shortages and to plan for the allocation of vehicles as soon as the delivery was received.
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