The Northern Cape is South Africa’s most sparsely populated province and the country’s largest, making serviceable police vehicles essential in fighting crime.
This, however, is not the case according to Ofentse Mokae, a Democratic Alliance (DA) National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Member of Parliament. Speaking during this week’s Parliamentary debate on the Presidential State of the Nation address (SONA) he highlighted the lack of serviceable vehicles at some police stations. This has proven to be a hindrance in the 375,000 square kilometre province that is home to 1.3 million South Africans.
Mokae has called for police in the province to be better equipped in the fight against crime, to enable efficient search and seizure operations, and patrols to detect and deter criminal activities. These are compromised if there are insufficient operational vehicles he told the debate, adding “it’s difficult to enforce visible policing when your fleet is crippled as a result of a flawed centralised procurement system”.
According to Mokae, the province is not the only one affected by a shortage of operational vehicles , the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga have the same problem, particularly in remote areas. “Vehicles are either standing on bricks at the stations or have been in the SAPS (SA Police Service) garage for more than 30 days awaiting parts, maintenance or repairs that can only be done once the service provider in Pretoria sends down the necessary parts,” he told Parliament.
Roodepan, 14 km from the provincial capital Kimberley, currently has nine serviceable vehicles with 20 awaiting maintenance and repairs. Postmasburg, 34 km from the SA Army Combat Training Centre (CTC) at Lohatlha, has half its eight vehicle allocation operation and in Kimberley 23 vehicles stand idle while parts are sourced.
Residents of these towns will “continue to bear the brunt of delayed response times to crime and emergencies by police”, Mokae said. Further, he has addressed a letter to Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, calling for the review of the “inefficient process” hampering police from doing their job.
“The centralisation of procurement to Pretoria must be urgently addressed to allow provinces and, particularly police stations, to procure parts and repair vehicles in the shortest of time and at their earliest convenience. The lengthy administrative processes to procure just a single part for a SAPS vehicle is more threatening to the safety of residents than following due protocol.”
“Securing parts for vehicles needs to be a swift and seamless process to ensure all vehicles are up and running within 30 days whereby they are returned to SAPS stations so that policing can commence unhindered and without delays,” said Mokae.
