Our oversight visit to the Erasmia SAPS was rather demoralising to say the least. I cannot imagine anyone who would like to come to work in circumstances like this. The station commander is doing her utmost best to keep the station functional, and you can see that there is mutual respect between her and all officers at this station, but this station like many others is a health and occupation risk. The fire distinguishers have expired, there is no holding cells, no generator and officers are left to their devices to try and maintain the vehicles and buy candles for the station. The station has three sectors and it takes approximately 40minutes to get to the furthest point within their jurisdiction, yet they need to share one vehicle between the three sectors to attend to complaints.

SAPS needs a complete overhawl and we need to devolve the policing powers now. We cannot have a situation like this station that is under resourced, not maintained and a complete dump and expect them to ensure the safety of our residents. The change starts with the political will from the Minister of Police who needs to account and ensure proper resources for all stations to enable them to curb crime.

Crezane Bosch
Community Safety
DA Gauteng Police Watch
Democratic Alliance Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature for the Sixth Legislature

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