Cape Town –There are cordial relations between the residents of Khayelitsha and the South African Police Service.
Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko said this when he engaged Khayelitsha residents in the Western Cape on Saturday during an imbizo he called to engage them on the findings and recommendations of the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry report.
This comes after the report was presented to the Ministry of Police last year following a two-year inquiry into the efficiency of policing in the area following allegations that the high rate of crime in Khayelitsha was due to a breakdown in relations between the police and members of the community.
Addressing a packed marque tent at the Khayelitsha Rugby Stadium, the Minister said what has emerged from the imbizo as well as interactions with residents after the report was released is that the members of the community and the police were working together to bring about peace and stability in the area.
“It was important that we needed to start where we started. By law as government, we recognise that there was a commission of inquiry here in Khayelitsha and that all that remains is for us to react to the specific recommendations that came out of that report.
“I must say that I am very happy that there is a between the police and the members of the community. For instance, the setting up of a five aside structure between government, community and the police is a case in point,” he said.
The Minister was referring to a task team that was set up to look into the recommendations of the report that raised issues that has very often led to the members of the public raising concerns about the effectiveness of policing in the area.
During the imbizo, residents were given an opportunity to engage with the Minister as well as the top police brass that had attended the event.
While some asked questions and made comments about a need for police visibility to be increased in the area, some called for more satellite police stations to be rolled out in the area to improve visibility and ensure rapid response to crime scene.
Other issues raised by members of the community included, amongst others, a lack of street lighting in the area, where street lights go unfixed for up to seven months, making policing in the area a challenge.
“Now there have been a number of issues that have been raised and I must say most of the issues require a definite follow-up.
“There has got to be a follow-up on issues of infrastructure development in Khayelitsha. From our side as South African Police Service we continue to interact with different government departments at various levels of government to deal with infrastructure such as lighting, roads, because that infrastructure assist the work of the police,” he said.
The Minister said, meanwhile, the utterances of members of the community, as well as community leaders in the area – most of whom disputed the notion that there were strained relations between residents and the men and women in blue – showed that their voice was absent during the commission of inquiry.
“What we have in Khayelitsha, and it is an issue which we have picked up through community engagements, it is the fact that the voice of the local leaders has not been heard during the Khayelitsha commission.
“But everybody else who does not come from Khayelitsha has been claiming to the legitimate leaders of the aspirations of the people of Khayelitsha. The fact of the matter is that we should put an end to such efforts because such efforts continue to add to these other efforts to dehumanise our people,” he said.
He cautioned against politicising policing in the area as it crime was an issue that was sensitive to the victims of crime.
The Minister thanked volunteers for their efforts in forming neighbourhood watches, amongst other community based structures, to assist policing.
“The question of volunteers and the Community Policinhg Forum – how they are being assisted and capacitated to do their work.
“That is a valid point in a sense that … we must look at ways and means of capacitating those structures in order for them to complement the work of the police.
“We will work with the provincial and local governments to look at approaches we can take to capacitate the CPFs and volunteers,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
