Cops abandon victims of crime
February 19 2014 at 02:29pm
By LEE RONDGANGER
By LEE RONDGANGER
Durban - A couple who called the police
after their Montclair home was broken into were told there were “no drivers” to
send out - despite there being five police vehicles parked at the police
station.
According to a senior police source,
none of the police officers on duty at the time had driving licences.
The vehicles that were out were busy at
other scenes, while one vehicle was being used to escort a prisoner to
hospital.
This, forced Gerda Viljoen, 63, and her
husband, Pieter, 66, to wait three hours before an officer with a driving
licence could attend.
Earlier two of their calls – one to the
police’s emergency 10111 number and the other to the Montclair police station –
were allegedly not answered.
It was only after a second try to 10111
that Gerda said her call was answered. “We live alone. If we are ever in
trouble at home we would want the police to pick up the phone and we would want
them to send a van to our house. It is totally not right that they had no one
to send out to us,” she said.
Gerda, on the advice of the Montclair
Community Policing Forum (CPF) is compiling an official complaint which will be
sent to police management.
The incident occurred on Sunday at
around 5pm shortly after the Viljoens arrived home.
They discovered their back door had
been smashed in and their home ransacked. A flat-screen television and
jewellery had been taken as well as a small amount of money she had collected
at church towards hampers for pensioners.
Gerda said that when her first two
calls to the police were not answered, she sent a Whats-App message to a member
of the CPF to inform them of the break-in.
She said when she did get hold of the
10111 call centre a short while later, the operator, who gave her a reference
number promised to send someone to assist them.
“But no one came. The lady from our CPF
came and sat with us from about 7pm. At 7.30 she had had enough and went to the
station to find out what was going on. That’s when we heard there were no
drivers. A police van eventually came out at about 7.50pm,” she said.
Police promised to send out fingerprint
technicians, but by late on Tuesday technicians had not yet dusted for prints.
Gavin Hegter, chairman of the Montclair
CPF, said it was “a huge problem” that many police officers did not have
driving licences.
“I don’t understand how we can have
policemen who can’t drive. This whole thing is further compounded by the lack
of training and resources.
“Another problem is that we don’t have
reservists anymore. Numbers have dwindled and they are not recruiting anymore.
Reservists were a bunch of dedicated citizens… that could easily fill those
gaps in policing,” he said.
According to figures released by Police
Minister Nathi Mthethwa last year – in reply to a parliamentary question by DA
MP Dianne Kohler Barnard – more than 16 800 officers countrywide did not have
driving licences.
In KZN, 2 896 constables, 614
sergeants, 2 896 warrant officers, 888 captains, 256 lieutenant-colonels and
103 colonels were not licensed drivers.
Kohler Barnard said it was unacceptable
that thousands of police officers could not drive.
“Taxpayers pay R68 billion a year
towards the SAPS. There is a reasonable expectation that when you call the
police they will come. It means that those people could have had 10 rapists in
their home and the police would not have come because nobody could drive,” she
said.
Kohler Barnard said that while the
criteria for a job with the police included a matric certificate and a driving
licence, the latter was relaxed during former police commissioner Bheki Cele’s
administration as it was “racist”.
Police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker
said they were disturbed by the allegations.
Shortage
“There is no shortage of drivers in the
SAPS, especially since it has been a requirement for enlistment into the SAPS
since 2009. We can confirm that the allegations were brought to our attention
by a member of the CPF, however, when an officer was sent to interview and
obtain a statement from the complainant, she refused to provide him with a
statement or co-operate with the investigation,” he said.
Viljoen denies she did not co-operate
and alleges she was asked by the police officer not to write a formal
complaint.
Naicker also said the 10111 call centre
was not experiencing any problems.
“The call was recorded on their systems
and dispatched to the Montclair patrol van. There are no problems with the
10111 lines. Our investigation is continuing,” Naicker said.
Daily News
