Greenfields residents frustrated by SAPS service
"We try our best to cooperate with all communities and we have no complaints from other areas around Eden park," said Captain Vusi Mhlophe.
THE shooting of a Community Police Forum (CPF) member on Monday night, March 20, in Greenfields has sparked disappointment and frustration among residents who claim the Eden Park SAPS is failing them.
A group of angry residents gathered in front of the police station on Tuesday morning to express their concerns. One resident, who asked to remain anonymous, had this to say: “A CPF member was shot on Monday while patrolling the area.
“The patrollers encountered six suspects at 2am who just started shooting at them. One patroller was shot and had to be rushed to hospital with three bullet wounds. The cops arrived but just left and we thought they would return early the next day to the scene to pick up empty cartridges and assess the scene, but they never did.”
The group of residents reported that, as they stood there at the station, they had not seen the police go to the scene to take any statements from witnesses, who are members of the CPF.
One CPF member says the CPF arrests suspects with dangerous weapons and drugs, but when they take the suspects to the police to open cases, nothing happens and the suspects are later seen roaming freely about the streets. The CPF says there is no cooperation from SAPS.
Captain Vusi Mlophe spoke to the group and called the leaders to a meeting in the boardroom where the issue was addressed.
“It is clear to me that Greenfields is divided into two groups who are forever at each other’s throats and blaming the police for choosing sides. The one group even blames a councillor in the area for standing or protecting the other group. The only solution is for us, the police, to get the two groups together and for us, as mediators, to solve the problem.
“We work well with the CPF in all other areas except Greenfields. We try our best to cooperate with all communities and we have no complaints from other areas around Eden Park,” he said.
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