Police Minister Bheki Cele has called on the community of Khayelitsha to be the “eyes and ears” to the 10 new police vehicles handed over in Khayelitsha on Thursday 16 June.
Cele urged residents to guard against the misuse of the vehicles to do “shopping” among other things and instances where vehicles were parked at officers’ homes.
The vehicles were handed over to better respond and deal with crime related matters in the Khayelitsha policing precinct.
Cele said police needed to work with communities as Khayelitsha was notorious for mass killings.
He believes communities are vital in the fight against crime. “We are trying to invite everybody to say what needs to be done but with a full understanding that if the community is not central to what we are trying to do, it won’t work. We are pleased today it’s not the police, not the government but the community that pulled everybody here,” said Cele.
He said they were in Khayelitsha to answer to the community in terms of their needs, to work with them and achieve better life and safety to the people of the area.
Cele said they had five commissions to find answers from the community and hear few things from the community as what to be done, by whom and by when.
He said they knew as police they have to arrest criminals as they commit crime, put police at the police stations and resource them.
“This province, especially around the City of Cape Town, has eight police stations appearing on the top 30 of most criminal stations in the country. Those eight police stations have been given extra R10 million to run the situation at the stations level as they respond, and that is beyond the equity budget that this province gets,” he said.
Cele said the province has also received R10 million of Anti-Gang Unit budget that is beyond equity budget.
They have also received R15,8 million to deal with gender-based violence and R9 million to deal with safety of these stations that are vulnerable.
The police vans will be shared among the three Khayelitsha police stations namely, Khayelitsha (Site B) Lingelethu West and Harare police station.
Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) chair Ndithini Tyhido thanked Cele for the vehicles and believes the area “needed the type of resources” to better deal with pressing issues of crime.
