‘Police safety is key priority’

National police commissioner General Khehla Sitole yesterday told MPs there were strategies which had been put in place to prioritise police safety at all stations, although he admitted there were challenges.

Sitole said some of the police stations needed to be completely redesigned as they made police members vulnerable. However, he said, some were being rented which made it difficult to raise safety measures.

He was briefing the portfolio police committee on the Ngcobo police station killings earlier this year in which five officers and a retired soldier were gunned down.

He was also giving an update on the technology strategy with special reference to CCTVs for police stations and also on the situation at Mamelodi West police station in which officers earlier this month allegedly mishandled a case of Katlego Joja, 10, whose body was found days later after her parents had been turned away after reporting her missing.

“One of the challenges, which I think is interesting, is I never had an office since I had become a police commissioner. I have been waiting to occupy Telkom Towers but I was given five dates since my appointment,” said Sitole.

“I was told I was going to be ready to enter the office in January, it went to February, April, to May. I decided to occupy the office, I think, two weeks back and after I’ve occupied the office they wrote me a letter, ‘we do not take any risk for your premature occupation of the office’, so I have been working under the trees and fighting crime from under the tree. I think there are those challenges.”

Commenting on the security enhancements at stations across the country, he told MPs that police strategies had been reviewed, adding that police had began interacting with the community of eNgcobo, which had an imbizo (community meeting) convened by Police Minister Bheki Cele.

“The community policing strategy has been fully implemented at Ngcobo and is now fully in place, so the community link and intervention is now sustainable in terms of this particular plan,” he said.

Sitole added that officials were busy with the total review of the technological strategies and requirements for policing at the station. “While we are going to install CCTV cameras at Ngcobo and all the other police stations in the country, we are also linking that to the review and update of technology.”

His team also told MPs that the Mancoba Seven Angels church, where the police station attackers were operating from, had since been closed down, adding that the matter was still under investigation as more charges were likely to be added.

A police task team killed seven suspects during a shoot-out at the church as they closed in on the gang of cop killers. About 10 other suspects were also arrested at the church. – ANA