The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) has called for an urgent restructuring of the South African Police Service (SAPS), saying  police stations in the country are no longer safe for the public.

It comes after at least ten heavily armed men robbed a police station in Limpopo of a large number of weapons on Sunday night.

“Some members were forced into the back of the police van while a member was ordered to open the safe where the suspects took out five rifles, 9mm pistols, shot guns and an undisclosed number of ammunition,” said police’s spokesperson Athlenda Mathe.

The call for restructuring comes alongside repeated demands for National Police Minister Bheki Cele to resign or be removed.

The police service in the Western Cape has also faced numerous allegations of corruption, despite a drop in serious crime recorded in the latest quarter. Community Safety Minister, Albert Fritz, detailed the latest stats in a statement highlighting the need for more to be done to sustainably reduce crime figures.

In the latest second quarter crime stats released by National Police minister Bheki Cele on Friday, the Western cape was the only province that recorded a drop in reported criminal activity of the three month period.

Contact crime in all categories saw a decrease, except common robbery. See the tables below for more details:

Fritz said the figures indicate stabilization in the province when compared to national figures:

“Of course, there are factors that impact these findings, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the various responses to it, that need to be taken into account when undertaking a detailed analysis. But we are encouraged that things are now moving in the right direction. We must keep it that way!” he said in a statement.

Fritz took the opportunity to attribute the success to the provincial safety plan, expressing gratitude to all role-players. According to Cele however, the decline is testament to increased resources being pushed to the province. Fritz said there remains room for improvement:

“What is clear to me though is that more must be done, so that this is not just a once-off decline. That is why we will continue to rollout our extensive Safety Plan, and we will keep on fighting for more policing resources from the National Government. The police to population ratios in our poorest communities remains unacceptably high. Imagine what we could achieve if this was corrected as a matter of urgency?”

POPCRU expressed outrage at the latest incident, where only five police were reportedly on duty, saying that it is among several similar scenarios which need to be addressed:

“This follows multiple other incidents of the same nature in Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape and the North West provinces in the recent past, demonstrating that despite the historical role of police stations being safe havens; they are now becoming unsafe territories for both officers and community members. This has unfairly led to police being totally blamed for failing to service communities without characterizing their deteriorating working conditions.”

In a statement, the union reiterated that the service plays a crucial role in making citizens and communities safe:

“This brazen attack takes place at a time when there have been many vulnerabilities with regards to the integrity of police stations, dominantly those situated outside affluent areas, with challenges around the uneven allocation of resources and staff shortages at a peak.”

VOC