Note to editors: Please find attached English soundbite by Michael Waters MPL.
Kempton Park Police Station currently has only three vehicles to service six policing sectors. This is despite an optimal requirement of twelve vehicles. This shortage is leaving residents vulnerable to crime and potentially delaying emergency responses in an area that has seen a surge in serious crime incidents.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to Premier Panyaza Lesufi requesting that he urgently engage his national counterpart, acting National Police Minister Feroz Cachalia, to deploy additional vehicles and provide a time-bound plan to reach the required 12 vehicles. The Minister must also account for emergency patrol resources deployed since the suspected serial murders came to light. We will also table further questions to establish why the shortage has persisted, how it has affected police response times and when the additional vehicles will be provided.
Premier Lesufi’s written reply to questions posed by the DA in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) highlights a significant shortfall, noting that Kempton Park has six policing sectors, with each needing two vehicles, yet only three operational sector policing vehicles are currently available. This station manages approximately 40 reports per 12-hour shift, totalling roughly 80 incidents every day, yet there is no timeline for delivering additional vehicles.
See reply here.
This means the station has 25% of the vehicles it needs to maintain effective visible policing, despite growing crime concerns and the discovery of multiple women’s dead bodies in and around Kempton Park. Disturbingly, the DA found the same deficit during an inspection twelve months ago, yet the situation remains unchanged.
Assigning only three vehicles to police six sectors, instead of 12, is an indefensible failure of SAPS leadership and a blatant disregard for Kempton Park residents’ safety. SAPS must stop making excuses and urgently provide the necessary vehicles to ensure safety and restore visible policing.
A DA-led Gauteng Provincial Government would urgently engage the Acting Police Minister to pursue the devolution of policing powers to the province. This will enable Gauteng to set its own policing priorities and allocate resources based on crime patterns in its communities, including Kempton Park.