Parliament visit finds
Fleet St police station in a mess
By ZWANGA MUKHUTHU on
February 5, 2014
PARLIAMENT’S portfolio committee on police found East London’s Fleet
Street police station in a state of disarray on Monday.
The chairwoman of the committee, Annelize van Wyk, said detectives in
the station were not performing to the best of their abilities, resulting in
poor outcomes on their cases.
The station was also violating national police instructions regarding
confiscated drugs.
“We found drugs in the police station, in contrast to the national
instructions which clearly states that drugs should not be in the station for
more than a week without being sent to the laboratories.
“It seems the drugs we found at the station have been there for more
than two weeks,” Van Wyk said.
Furthermore the archives where dockets are stored are in tatters.
The committee is in the Eastern Cape to conduct site visits to four of
the biggest police stations including the Fleet Street, Mdantsane, Berlin and
Zwelitsha stations.
The motive is to assess whether the stations are providing effective
services to communities. “We are visiting only those stations that have been
identified by police management in this province as being best or worst,” said Van
Wyk.
She said the committee was disappointed by what it saw at the Fleet
Street station, adding the problems could be solved simply by some officers
doing their jobs daily.
Van Wyk was speaking to the Dispatch during her second site visit, this
time to the Mdantsane police station, which she said was far better managed.
“Here in Mdantsane we were very impressed with the quality of detectives
and how they are being managed.
“The only issue we have picked up was at the cells where they are not
functional due to the lack of water but we were assured that this is being
addressed.”
Provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Celiwe Binta, and the
chairman of the portfolio committee on safety in the province, Mninawa Nyusile,
were part of the site visit yesterday.
Van Wyk said the committee had until tomorrow to draft recommendations
for the province to address. A full report on the committee’s findings will be
tabled in parliament. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
