Pholile police station officially opens
Police minister Bheki Cele officially opened a new R50m police station in Pholile village in Matatiele on Tuesday following an outcry from residents and livestock owners about the rising crime levels in the area. Cele told hundreds of residents that the new station would be instrumental in fighting stock theft which is rampant in the area. “We want to make the station a centre of development. This is a beginning of how things should be done. We will work hard to increase members who have a good mix of locally based members and those coming from far away,” Cele said. Although only 17 stock theft cases were reported in Matatiele in the latest crime statistics released last year, residents believe there were more stock theft cases that were not reported due to a lack of a police station in the area. Community leader, Vuyisa Qulase said: “Most police stations are in town and none in villages. People’s animals have been stolen from their kraals. Almost everyone here has been a victim of stock theft. “We had to report cases in town or travel far to report cases so some were never reported.” The area recorded 218 reported drug cases last year. “The availability of police will assist in fighting drugs as well. Our youth in rural areas have also fallen prey to these substances. People have been living in fear,” Qulase said.. “Back in the days we used to be scared of hearing about ghosts but now we are scared of the people we live with in our communities because of the incidents that are always happening in our villages.” Ward councillor Sicelo Mapasa said they had waited for two decades to have a police station in the area. “One of the main challenges we had was that cases were never reported or sometimes people had to wait for days before opening cases. We hope crime will decrease in our area.” Pholile village chief, Bulelwa Ncanywa, said the community would work closely with police to alleviate crime in the area. “We started planning this back in 2010 and police officials came to us to ask for a piece of land to build this police station,” Ncanywa said.
We hope crime will decrease in our area