Satellite police station for Elsies
THE BUILDING of a satellite police station in Elsies River will greatly assist the community, who have been complaining that they are too scared to report crime at the existing police station.
This is according to Esethu Hasane, the spokesperson for Police Minister Fikile Mbalula.
“The minister has promised Elsies River a satellite police station, in light of the fact that communities complained that they were too scared to report crime at the existing police station. Once the satellite police station has been built, the community will be able to go to the new one to report crimes,” Hasana said.
“The new police station will also improve policing in the area. More information will be contained in the minister’s budget speech.”
This comes shortly after Mbalula and President Jacob Zuma visited the parents of murdered 3-year-old Courtney Pieters, who was buried on Sunday.
She went missing on May 4 and on May 13 her body was discovered in Epping Industria a few kilometres from her home.
Mortimer Saunders, 40, who boarded with the family, was arrested in connection with her murder and appeared in the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court.
Hasane has also said they will look into how the police investigated the matter after Courtney had been reported missing.
She was the 19th child killed in the Western Cape since the beginning of the year.
Faizel Brown from the Mitchells Plain Crisis Forum said that the Elsies River community complained to the police minister about how Courtney’s case was handled by the police from the start.
“It is alleged that the police did not search the house where the suspect stayed, properly.
“We asked for sniffer dogs to help with the investigation, but they said that there were not enough dogs. Only later a search-and-rescue dog was brought to look for the child.
“What angered the community is that the whole case was dealt with so whimsically, from the beginning when the mom reported the case to the police.”
In reaction, a provincial police spokesperson Noloyiso Rwexana said that they could not divulge information pertaining to a murder investigation which was yet to be finalised.