Cape Town - Activists and community leaders from Khayelitsha say a mobile police station to serve Makhaza, unveiled at the weekend, will not solve the issues raised in the Khayelitsha Commission Report.
Instead, they have called for police management to build a fully functional police station in Makhaza, as recommended in the report.
This comes after the Police Minister Bheki Cele and the provincial police commissioner Tembekile Phathekile unveiled the mobile police station during the launch of the Western Cape safer season campaign in Khayelitsha.
Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) chairperson Ndithini Tyhido welcomed the unveiling of the police station but demanded a proper station.
He claimed Phathekile promised the KDF that the police station would be built in the next financial year (2022).
Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said the police were in a process of building a station for Makhaza.
A researcher for the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), Thandokazi George, said it had been seven years since the SJC called for a fully functional police station in Makhaza.
George said they recognised the progress of the mobile police station. However, they do not believe it would necessarily solve the issues raised in the report.
“For example, the mobile police station has a holding cell, toilet and charge desk. For people going to report cases of rape, sexual assault and GBV, this will not be a space that gives them privacy to have their matters attended to adequately."
George said they were not provided with timeliness regarding when they could anticipate construction to commence for a fully functional police station.
Provincial community policing forum (CPF) board chairperson Fransina Lukas said the progress was welcomed, although the community had been waiting for years for the station.
Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz also welcomed the establishment of the satellite station at Makhaza “as an interim measure until the permanent Makhaza police station is built”.
“We believe this is a step in the right direction. We will follow up to ensure that the satellite station is properly capacitated so that we don’t have a similar situation as we saw over the weekend in Sir Lowry’s Pass where the satellite station was robbed because two female police officers were alone on duty,” Fritz said.