Residents have expressed their grievances against the police for allegedly letting them live under a crime siege.
This was said at a meeting of the Alexandra Police Cluster which includes Alexandra, Bramley, Sandton, Sandringham, Midrand police stations and their community police forums. The meeting at the Eastbank Hall discussed alleged police failures, complicity with criminals and lack of commitment to duty resulting in the public living in fear of alleged escalating crime. They said this in the presence of the MEC for Community Safety, Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, top management of the South African Police Services and the Joburg Metro police.
The residents were scathing of the local police station management which they accused of alienating itself from them, resulting in their loss of trust in the police for failing to deal with reported crimes or criminals. They said this led them to the belief that police colluded with criminals. Malobane, a resident of Alexandra, concurred with this assertion by stating an instance when an alleged criminal revealed his knowledge about reports made to the police by her and the chairperson of the community police forum alleging that he was a criminal.
The residents’ grievances included:
- Regular, but unresolved, carjacking on Vincent Tshabalala Road.
- Lack of police visibility at crime hot spots and bylaws not implemented against mushrooming shacks said to harbour criminals. Some shack dwellers are said not to have legitimate documentation making it difficult to trek them for crime investigation.
- People being mugged near the Marlboro Gautrain Station, on side routes to work, at home and also raped or killed in abandoned, incomplete buildings and other secluded spots.
- Police not confiscating illegal guns or arresting illegal gun owners.
- Police not attending to crime scenes and not informing victims on the progress in their crime investigations.
- Drug dens next to the police station and other illicit activities like prostitution at known spots operating with impunity.
- Police reported for alleged corruption while still in active duty.
- Police management not sending police officers to the community police forum which demoralised voluntary patrollers.
- The station management changing agreed work programmes without consulting the police forum.
- Lack of skills for statement taking and investigation resulting in the acquittals of criminals.
They said the public would be reluctant to inform the police on crime for as long as perception of police collusion with criminals remained. Also, they requested the MEC to consider stipends for volunteers to motivate them and to install CCTV camera at crime ridden spots.
