New police recruits unhappy with their living conditions

Crammed into single rooms without adequate bathroom facilities, and barred from accessing the kitchen, more than 100 constables redeployed from the North West say they have found themselves living in dire conditions in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Despite the Mount Road barracks being cleaned up after The Herald previously exposed the horrific conditions, two recruits are now compelled to share a single room with only enough closet space for one person.

At least four of the 136 constables who arrived in the Bay in mid-January, and are housed at the Mount Road and Humewood barracks, spoke to The Herald on condition of anonymity.

The new recruits, recent graduates of the nationwide 10,000 boots on the ground campaign, who joined the SA Police Service in December, emphasised the need for more space and privacy at Mount Road.

However, police authorities say if the constables are dissatisfied with the conditions, they should find alternative accommodation at their own expense.

“The members have been permanently deployed to Nelson Mandela Bay and if they are dissatisfied with their present accommodation, they are at liberty to find their own accommodation at their own cost,” police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said.

“The rooms are spacious and big enough to accommodate two people.”

The views of the constables, however, differ.

“I have complained about the space issue but nothing is being done, there’s no space whatsoever,” one constable said.

“The food situation is another story.

“We’re grown-ups shoved into a single room. They deployed us.

“We’re not asking the police to give us food, we’re simply asking for access to the kitchen.”

The dining hall was closed in 2016 due to a dispute between tenants and police management.

Management had proposed a rent increase of R800 a month to cover meals, but tenants rejected the additional cost, resulting in the dining hall’s closure.

And now the residents cannot access the adjoining kitchen.

The Herald’s visit in December revealed that the closure of the kitchen resulted in residents making fires in their rooms or the bathrooms to cook dinner.

“We can’t live off takeaways every day, it is expensive,” another constable said.

“There’s also no way for us to store food in a fridge because we don’t have access to the fridge, or stove, for that matter.

“I don’t want to come across as ungrateful, but it can’t go on like this.

“The bathrooms are also designed for only a limited number of people. Now we’ve doubled in numbers as there are two in a room.”

Before the constables arrived, a police accommodation crisis erupted, leaving top brass scratching around over where to house the 136 constables.

At the time, the barracks were too dirty and the Humewood police station barracks were full.

A week before their arrival, Mount Road police enlisted the services of about 15 cleaners to clean the barracks.

The barracks had a rat infestation and the corridors were littered with piles of empty alcohol bottles.

The basins were filled with mould and cigarette butts were littered all over.

Naidu said the decision to deploy the constables was per the requirements for enlistment as a police trainee as prescribed by Regulation 11 of the SAPS Regulations.

The regulation prescribes, among other things, that “any person who applies to be appointed as a member must be prepared to serve anywhere in the country”.

Policing expert Patricia Mashale said according to the resettlement and relocation policy, police management was mandated to facilitate housing for officers deployed from their home province to another.

She said it was their responsibility to secure suitable accommodation for a maximum of three months.

“So they have given them accommodation but it’s not suitable,” Mashale said.

“If it were suitable they would have had access to the dining hall.”

Naidu said the dining hall would remain closed.

“[These] members are now constables — it is not the responsibility of the employer to take care of their personal needs, unlike when members report for detached duties where they are accommodated with living arrangements, subsistence for meals, and so on for the time that they are deployed,” Naidu said.