Cape Town - The Gugulethu community wants Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale to shut down the local police station because it not serving them properly.
Residents used the Ministerial Crime Prevention Imbizo held at Luyoloville New Rest yesterday to urge Mathale to also replace the “lazy” officers at the station.
Mathale’s interaction with the community followed a request from the Community Policing Forum (CPF) to Police Minister Bheki Cele to assess the increasing contact related crimes and other serious crimes plaguing the community.
Gugulethu CPF deputy chairperson Lulama Dinginto said gender-based violence (GBV), break-ins and armed robberies were common crimes in their area.
She accused the local police of failing to assist and arrest criminals who were known to terrorise the community.
SA Youth Council provincial secretary Zuko Mndayi, who was at the Imbizo, said they were convinced that the outreach would reinforce the model of community centred approaches to crime and policing, particularly against GBV and various other government issues.
Mathale said he was sent to the community by Cele and he heard the community’s demands.
“With some of the things, we can’t say this is what we are going to do. We must go back and look at the things they have raised.”
With regard to the issue of a mobile station and police station that were promised 20 years ago, they would need to go and look at what was possible.
Among the attendees was provincial police commissioner Thembisile Patekile and the Deputy Minister in the Presidency responsible for State Security, Zizi Kodwa, who pleaded with the community to unite in community and social mobilisation in fighting crime.
The imbizo comes in the wake of the police seeking the whereabouts of Lwazi Sibindana from Gugulethu, who is wanted on a charge of murder after being accused of killing his girlfriend, Jacqueline Mpontsana.
Mpontsana, who worked for the Department of Community Safety, died after she was set alight in a domestic violence dispute, allegedly by Sibindana, who is still at large.
Anyone with information that could help the investigation is urged to contact Crime Stop at 08600 10111 or via the MySAPSApp.