The Boksburg North SAPS has appointed an acting station commander to replace Col Khumbulani Mbatha, who recently left the station to join Tsakane Police Station.
The station welcomed its newly appointed acting station commander, Lt-Col Kwena Meso, who took up the reins on May 1.
With 33 years of experience in the SAPS, Meso said he was ready to combat crime within the Boksburg North precinct.
Meso, who has since 2017 been serving as the head of the station’s detective branch, has immensely improved the station’s conviction rate.
Ready for his new role, Meso said he welcomes overcoming challenges and working with the community to create a safer environment for everyone.
“I am happy to serve and work with the community to curb crime, and I am also ready to listen and attend to its complaints.”
The 55-year-old, who lives in Boksburg, said his plan of action is to deal with some of the serious crimes in his policing precinct, such as business robberies, hijackings and drugs.
“I’m planning to intensify patrols, mostly in some of the hot spots, which include Atlas and North Rand roads. I will be doing that through a partnership with stakeholders, such as the CPF and security companies, as they play a pivotal role in the community. In terms of drugs, I will concentrate mostly on intelligence-driven operations to curb the drug market by arresting kingpins,” Meso said.
You can contact the new acting station commander on 082 319 0034.
Mbatha moves on to next chapter
Having served the community of Boksburg North for six years, Mbatha’s last day at work was on April 30 before he took up his new role as the station commander at the Tsakani Police Station.
Speaking to the Advertiser, Mbatha, who lives in Nigel, said his decision to move to the Tsakane Police Station was motivated by wanting to work closer to home.
Boasting 33 years of service in the SAPS, Mbatha joined the Boksburg North SAPS in 2016 after having served at the HRM office.
He said when he took over the station, there were several challenges. “When it comes to performance, we were not doing well, especially when it came to the Vispol Unit. I sat with the head of Boksburg North Vispol, Lt-Col Sipho Mathebula, and we came up with strategies that produced good results,” he said.
Mbatha said other challenges he came across were that some of the members were not motivated in regards to their Sunday and public holiday allowances.
“As management, we also capacitated crime-prevention; we looked at ways to improve the service in our station. We ended up being recognised in the top 30 best-performing stations in Gauteng and bagging awards.”
He thanked the community of Boksburg North for welcoming him and assisting him in fighting crime. He thanked the chairperson of the CPF, Mark Gilpin, for being a pillar of strength.
“He has always been supportive in everything we wanted to achieve as a station. He would go as far as helping us with his resources for the benefit of the community. I would also like to thank one of our partners, Sam Hammond, who assisted us to renovate the community service centre in 2018. Thank you also to local businesses which contributed by donating cellphones and other resources.”
In terms of crime, Mbatha said with the help of determined officers, the station has over the years secured numerous successes while working hand in hand with the community.
He said they have recovered firearms and have put notorious criminals behind bars.
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