LOCAL councillors along with DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Police MP Dianne Kohler Barnard, were turned away from Umbilo Police Station on Monday when they arrived to meet with the station commander.
The visit to Umbilo SAPS follows in the wake of a recent protest by the DA outside the provincial police buildings in Durban after Kohler Barnard was refused access to stations in KZN.
Following a meeting with the Acting Commissioner of police and DA provincial leader, Zwakele Mncwango on 12 November, the DA announced that while political party structures were prohibited from conducting oversight visits at SAPS facilities, members of the Provincial Legislature and Parliament could continue to conduct oversight visits as part of their Constitutional obligations and that the Acting Police Commissioner would ensure that all cluster and station commanders were advised of this.
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Ward 33 councillor, Mmabatho Tembe said she had appealed to Kohler Barnard to visit the station after receiving a number of complaints about poor police service from the community. She said she was also aware that the station needed resources and that the building and infrastructure needed to be addressed. She said they also wanted to hear the problems police were faced with so that they could assist.
Kohler Barnard had been turned away from Brighton Beach police station on Monday after she was told they had received a letter from the acting provincial commissioner Lt Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi to say they should refuse her entry. On arrival at Umbilo SAPS, she and councillors Tembe, Chris Pappas, Chris van den Berg and Caelee Laing were also given the run-around and were forced to leave without speaking to anyone at the station.
“As an MP and as part of the police portfolio committee I have the right to do oversight visits. I don’t have any problems anywhere else in the country,” she said. “This is part of my job. I don’t need a letter to say I can visit the station, it is my constitutional right to do so. It is like I’m simply being ignored until I go away,” she said adding that she had noticed the poor state of the station while visiting and was shocked that storm damage to the building from October 2017 still hadn’t been addressed.
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