Olievenhoutbosch cop shop to get overhaul

The Olievenhoutbosch police station will be overhauled after members of the community came out in numbers to complain to the minister of police about nonexistent service, during an imbizo last week.

On Monday, Police Minister Bheki Cele, his deputy Cassel Mathale and national police commissioner Khehla Sitole hosted a meeting with Olievenhoutbosch community leaders about the concerning claims of poor service.

After the meeting it was announced a clean-up campaign would take place, starting with the overhauling of the management of the police station, with a new station commander to be deployed to the area as early as next month.

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A team of detectives has also been assembled to investigate over 1800 unsolved cases at the station, including murder, rape and robbery.

Other plans to improve the station include the extension of the building to accommodate more officers and an injection of new patrol vehicles.

Cele said these interventions were necessary if the police wanted to win back the trust of the community.

“The station’s performance will be monitored at a national level through the inspectorate and regular reports issued to the police management to monitor its progress,” Cele said.

He appealed to the community to work with police to clean up the area and urged residents to report corrupt police officials.

“At the same time, I call on community members to give support to the many good, honest and hard-working officers of the law,” Cele added.

Gauteng MEC of community safety Faith Mazibuko also formed part of the meeting and has committed to revive the local Community Police Forum to facilitate community-police relations in the area, as well as build street committees that are fully functional.

Johan Burger, a research consultant at the Institute for Security Studies, said he believes bringing in new blood to the station will make a huge difference.

“One has to be positive and believe it cannot get worse than it currently is,” Burger said.

Burger said the new blood needed to have the necessary knowledge and expertise to perform the tasks at hand.

“The new station commander must be someone who is already an experienced station commander with knowledge, experience and expertise regarding the management of a police station,” Burger said.

He said running a police station and managing those who work in it was a big responsibility.

“If the station commander does not have expertise, that individual will struggle even at a good police station.

“At a police station that is a problem, it would simply be a disaster if the person had no experience,” Burger added.

Burger said the new station commander should be someone with integrity to ensure all forms of corruption can be eradicated.

“If the trust in the police is one of the problems, corruption was probably one of the reasons for that,” Burger said.

He added for police to do their jobs, they must have the necessary resources, such as vehicles.

“No police station can function without vehicles,” he said.

Burger said the police must be able to patrol and respond to complaints. He also pointed out that the detectives would need vehicles to investigate their cases.

“The community must be able to see visible change at that police station. “The situation at the moment is unacceptable,” he said.

marizkac@citizen.co.za