Saps claims rural cop shop abandoned at foundation stage is completed

The rural community of Katjibane in Mpumalanga appear to be the proud owners of an “imaginary” R35 million police station, while South African Police Service (Saps) management appears to have openly lied in reports that the facility had been completed.

National Police Commissioner General Khehla Sitole’s promise in May that the temporary facility built next to the abandoned site would be operational in three months has not materialised.

Sitole had previously danced around questions over why a temporary police station set up in Katjibane in 2018 was not utilised, despite the community’s desperation for services. At the time, The Citizen reported how construction on a R35 million state-of-the-art Pungutsha police station was abandoned at foundation level seven years earlier.

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When the frustrated community finally rioted and demanded answers, millions of rands more were apparently splurged on a temporary facility, before this was also inexplicably abandoned.

The nearest police station to the village is Mmametlhake police station, on the northeastern border of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, about 25km away.

But according to the 2019-2020 Saps annual report, Pungutsha police station was among 17 completed projects and was supposedly completed in February last year.

This claim naturally triggered locals’ anger.

“Other than clearing the overgrown area around the facility nothing has happened. Residents still do not have police service and there is no feedback,” Ndzundza-Pungutsha Traditional Council headman, Thomas Maluleka, said.

“The structure is still at foundation phase. Clearly the report is a lie. We as the traditional council did not get any progressive report from the Saps. There is no truth in the [annual] report.”

What else isn’t true?

National police spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe is yet to explain the discrepancy that has raised concerns about the credibility of the contents of the entire report.

“The important question is what other progresses are they lying about? This is very serious and we need answers. This community has been failed so much that we have decided that there will be no voting here. We have been undermined and abused for far too long,” Simon Macheke, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) ward 27 treasurer, charged.

Inkosi Cecil Mahlangu, deputy chairperson of Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leadership, echoed these sentiments, lamenting that the debacle was having a devastating effect on the community.

“The Saps has failed us. The community was looking forward to be part of the Inclusive rural economy but no investor will invest in an area where there is no guaranteed safety and security and visible policing,” he said.

Mahlangu said there were plans to launch traditional policing in the province and that part of the launch document speaks to infrastructure that the community did not have.

The community has seemingly been sold empty promises, as reported by The Citizen how the provincial government’s promise to tar the 9.5km stretch of dirt road connecting Nokaneng and Limpopo for R110 million never materialised.

siphom@citizen.co.za