Currently the station, its workforce, its offices, bathrooms and stairwells are in absolute chaos or quite simply unavailable to the public.
The recordvisited the station on the morning of 5 February in hopes of tracking down the spokesperson. The last time the record was able to successfully get commentary from official spokesperson Warrant Officer Nonhlanhla Khumalo was for a simple, short article on drug arrests, published on the website on 12 November last year.
Ever since, attempts to get valuable police commentary in Roodepoort were thwarted by Khumalo either being in a meeting, unavailable on her cellphone or office line or simply not being at the station during normal business hours. Even after being provided case numbers and background information, Khumalo has failed time and again to follow up with valuable information, often confusing one case with another. Scarce press releases sent to the record were more often than not riddled with spelling and grammatical errors.
More often than not the record has stated in articles regarding Roodepoort crime stories that “the police have committed to commenting” or could not be reached for comment.
Record intern Labeeqah Rawood, who has never been inside the station before, was shocked at the state of things. She later gave a detailed description of the experience in a sound clip. In short, the spokesperson was said to be “in a meeting” without explanation or a time that the meeting would end, many of the offices the record was referred to were locked or closed and the office doors were not marked in any way, leaving the journalists to meander the station in search of answers. Only two employees bothered stopping the journalists and asking them what they were looking for; elsewhere they were met with blank uninterested stares. Only two policemen were seen in uniform. The station was smelly and litter was strewn everywhere. All the bathrooms were locked and could not be used and finally, one of two elevators was barely in working condition and wasn’t lit at all.
One wonders who checks up on the police when visiting the Roodepoort Police Station in Raath Street. It brings to mind the well-known latin phrase “quis custodiet ipsos custodes” or, who watches the watchmen?
Contact human resources to speak to spokesperson
Afterwards the record contacted Khumalo to enquire about arranging a meeting. Khumalo said that she was in a meeting that morning, that she “is always in meetings”.
“You need to contact our Human Resources department and tell them exactly what you want from me and they will redirect you to me,” was her nonsensical response.
What SAPS Media had to say
According to a source within the department who wishes to stay anonymous, a police ‘communications officer’ career starts with applying for the job after it was officially advertised. He did not specify necessary qualifications to apply for such a position, just stating that “one needs to have the necessary expertise”. In the case of not being able to reach a station’s spokesperson, he recommended speaking to provincial communication officers or, after trying that, to SAPS Media.
Many offices and all bathrooms were locked on the morning of Thursday 5 February.
Record intern Labeeqah Rawood shared her first experience of the Roodepoort Police Station in a short soundclip:
