Top officials pay surprise visit to Honeydew Police Station

Following recent media reports about the Honeydew policing cluster being the crime heaven of Gauteng, the Gauteng Premier, David Makhrura, undertook an unannounced visit to Honeydew police station on Thursday 27 November.

He was accompanied by the MEC for Community Safety, Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane and the Provincial Police Commissioner, Lt-Gen Lesetja Mothiba.

On arrival the Premier visited the Customer Service Centre where he interacted with community members who visited the centre for assistance. The two community members expressed satisfaction at the level of service they received.

The police leadership, together with Mothiba, presented crime trends, patterns and the turn-around strategy to the premier.

Murder, attempted murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances are among the leading crime activities experienced in the area. The most affected areas in this police precinct, that are somehow contributing to the high crime rate in the Honeydew Cluster are Cosmo City, Itsoseng, Zandspruit and Roodepoort.Roodepoort has a high level of gang activities, comprising of illegal foreign nationals attributed to illegal mining in the area.

Mothiba said in comparison to the crimes statistics in October 2013, the statistics for October 2014 revealed a decline in the levels of crimes. The reduction in these categories of crime is as a result of the implementation of the turn-around strategy by the cluster. The strategy include the enhancement of intelligence capacity, community mobilisation and the multi-disciplinary integrated approach which include joint-law enforcement operations and sustainable working relations with security companies within the cluster.

The premier also noted that underdeveloped areas like Zandspruit somehow affected policing issues. “In areas like Zandspruit there are no proper streets, making it challenging for police to easily access these settlements.” With this said, Makhura said he will liaise with certain departments like human settlement to ensure that they prioritise service delivery in some of these areas.

“We visited this station to look at the progress they are making to turn-around the situation, particularly the crime trends in the area. We are deeply concerned by the levels of murder and robberies, but what pleases me is that the intervention by MEC Nkosi–Malobane and the Provincial Police Commissioner is starting to bear fruits as we see the situation turning around.

“We understand the cluster has limited resources. However, we appreciate the commitment by the management and the officers to continue fighting crime and protecting citizens. We will continue to monitor the situation in the cluster,” said Makhura.

The MEC expressed her satisfaction with the state of affairs at the police station. “This is my third visit to the station this year and I can proudly state that there is so much improvement.”

Nkosi-Malobane commended the station management and staff for stabilising certain crime trends in the precinct.

On a different note, the MEC said she was concerned about social crimes.

“There are 188 licensed areas of entertainment, where liquor is sold in this cluster and only five recreational facilities. This is a very disturbing statistic. If it is addressed, we can see a huge decrease in some of the crimes.”

Mothiba also commended the station and cluster management. “In the past 15 years, Honeydew police station has been among the top worst stations in the province and country but for the past five years, the station disappeared from that list.”

He also highlighted that the other contributing factors could be the rapid growth seen in the cluster. “This is one of the fastest growing area in the country. We see a large influx of people daily.”

The Honeydew cluster consists of six police stations, which are Diepsloot, Randburg, Douglasdale, Honeydew, Roodepoort and Florida. The 149.31 square kilometer cluster has a population 250 000,15 percent of which reside in informal settlements, 1100 housing complexes or town houses and a daily influx of about 100 000 people.