Metro’s
lack of vehicles worrying
Only three out of the eight vehicles at the
Lyttelton station are available to serve the community, but metro police say
there is no crisis.
Laetitia Velleman | 16 October 2013
Five out of the eight metro police vehicles in the
greater Centurion region are out of order – making policing in Region 4
challenging. Despite the shortage of vehicles, metro police in this region have
now been ordered to be deployed at one address in Ruimte Road 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
Following several complaints from readers and other
members of the public about claims that certain areas in Centurion were not patrolled,
Rekord investigated the allegations and found that there were simply not enough
vehicles to allow metro police officers to perform their duties properly.
After visiting the Region 4 office in Lyttelton, it
was found that only three out of the eight vehicles were roadworthy. The other
vehicles were either badly damaged – mostly due to accidents – or unable to
start.
Regardless of this pitiful situation, a letter of
deployment was issued to all supervisors by department chief, Jenny Malan, but
signed by Danny Minnaar, the director of regions 4 and 6, to deploy two of
their staff members to Ruimte Road 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Rekord
learnt.
“You are hereby instructed to ensure deployment of
one vehicle and two members 24/7 to the address until further notice,” the
letter read.
The reason for this strict deployment were unknown,
but it was believed that the metro police officials were guarding an official’s
property, a source said.
A metro police officer told Rekord of an accident
that was reported, but that he could not attend to it even though it had taken
place only a block away.
“To put it in context, only one vehicle is
available to serve the whole of Region 4,” it was said.
On Tuesday, it was confirmed that for five days
only one vehicle was available – which had to be deployed to Ruimte Road for
the entire day and night.
According to Councillor Karen Meyer, DA
spokesperson on community safety, the total amount of vehicles for all the
metro police’s departments, including visible policing, the VIP section,
highway patrolling, the crime prevention department, the by-law department and
more, is 623.
The metro only owns 429 of these vehicles and 194
of them are being leased. “There is a shortage of at least 30% throughout
Pretoria due to the fact that vehicles have either been in an accident or are
in for a service,” said Meyer.
“The DA warned the metro that they urgently need to
purchase new vehicles, but every year apparently the budget does not allow it,”
Meyer added.
Metro police spokesperson, Isaac Mahamba, responded
to this matter and admitted that from time to time there was a shortage of
vehicles in Region 4 due to the aforementioned reasons, but that it is being
“managed and is not a crisis”. “If the management of Region 4 sees that there
is a serious shortage of resources, assistance from other regions may be
arranged, but we do not have a crisis,” he said.
Regarding the metro police officer that could not
attend a crime scene, Mahamba said this was incorrect. “Our responsibility is to
serve the community and if there are accidents or complaints, the member
nearest to the scene will attend to it.”
