Westville SAPS oversight visit explained
According to provincial SAPS, the DA delegation would have been granted access for its oversight if the MPs were the only ones hosting the inspection.
FOLLOWING the Democratic Alliance’s attempt to perform an oversight visit at Westville SAPS, provincial SAPS highlighted its reasons for barring the political party from entering the premises.
KZN SAPS spokesman, Brigadier Jay Naicker, said, “The various portfolios committee appointed to conduct oversight visits are not prevented from doing their job, however we will not allow random persons, including community leaders and councillors, from disrupting policing, even if they claim to be conducting oversight.”
The team conducting the oversight included Sharon Hoosen, MPL DA KZN spokesman on Community Safety and Elma Rabe, MPL, DA KZN spokesman on Social Development and councillors.
ALSO READ: DA barred from Westville SAPS oversight
Elma Rabe, MPL, said the delegation was not, at any stage, told only her and Sharon Hoosen were allowed to perform the inspection.
“Upon arrival at Westville SAPS, Sharon Hoosen, MPL and I were taken into the station commander’s office where he told us he could not allow us to conduct our oversight inspection due to a directive that no one from a political party may do so. We explained to him that we were representing the provincial legislature, to which he responded he would call for advice, which he did. Unfortunately, this made no difference to his ultimate decision,” said Rabe.
Sharon Hoosen, MPL, referred to Naicker’s response as ‘extremely misleading’.
“The DA attempted to conduct an oversight at the Westville Police Station after the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, confirmed that 76 per cent of South Africa’s police stations do not have the basic commodity of rape kits. In the case of the Durban Highway Rapist, many of his victims went to this SAPS station to open cases against him,” said Hoosen. “I have now written to the national commissioner and have requested his intervention into this matter.”
SAPS did not respond to questions regarding whether or not there was a dedicated trauma room or if it was adequately stocked with rape kits.
Do you want to receive alerts regarding this and other Highway community news via Telegram? Send us a Telegram message (not an SMS) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5409.
You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts.
Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple.
To receive our free newsletter click here.
