MEMBER of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Police Dianne Kohler Barnard conducted three oversight visits in the Central Durban area on 16 October.
Kohler Barnard was accompanied by Central Durban councillors, the Women’s Network led by Remona Mckenzie and Councillor Caelee Laing who heads up the Democratic Alliance’s LGBT+ movement in the province.
“The oversight visits were targeted at assessing the victim friendly units that should be available at local police stations. The three stations that were visited were SAPS Wentworth, Malvern and Cato Manor. The oversight visits were also an opportunity to assess the state and readiness of the police in these areas to fight the increasing crime rate that is currently holding our communities at ransom,” said Central Durban chairperson, Councillor Christopher Pappas.
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“Wentworth Station has a Rolls Royce Station Commander who had every fact and figure at his fingertips and didn’t have to call a single staff member to assist,” said Kohler Barnard. “The visits continued to Malvern Station, which is in what must surely be a condemned building, where the staff refer to their offices as shacks and water pours through the roof,” explained Kohler Barnard, “The building is falling apart and police officers are being forced to work in terrible conditions.”
The final visit was to Cato Manor where the station commander welcomed the group and said he had been in a meeting with a member of the Provincial SAPS.
“The latter did not leave the meeting and the station commander then said he had been instructed not to speak with me,” said Kohler Barnard.
“The new Acting Provincial Police Commissioner seems to believe that Members of Parliament answer to him. That we need permission from him to do our jobs. That we may not speak with police officers in KZN without express permission from him. We do not live in a country where public representatives of the people take orders from police. Indeed, the police come before Parliament and answer to us,” she explained.
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