Villagers lock up ‘useless’ policemen

Angry Eastern Cape villagers, fed up with “unreliable” and “useless” police officers, stormed their local police station and locked up six police officers on Sunday.

During the attack on the Tyefu police station near Peddie, property, including the police flag pole, was damaged, said Eastern Cape police spokesman Brigadier Thembinkosi Kinana.

Kinana said four suspects, two men and two women aged between 28 and 62, had been arrested and charged for public violence and malicious damage to property.

He said they would also be charged with contravening disaster management regulations governing Level 3 of the Covid-19 lockdown.

The four appeared in Peddie Magistrate’s Court and the case was postponed to 18 February.

They were released on bail, said Kinana.

A protester, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said slow response times and excuses of unavailability of vehicles from local police stations had angered residents.

“Crime is rife in Kwa Ndwayana, Qamnyana and Dlambe villages. Our police officers, who are paid with our public money, doze off and leave us to fight criminals ourselves.

“Enough is enough. Every weekend there is an incident here, armed robberies are out of control. We are tired of useless and unreliable police officers.”

The source said although there were more than 100 people who had attacked the police station, he was surprised that they only chose to arrest four people.

A police source said the four were arrested in the early hours of Monday at their homes, hours after the incident. The experienced officer said this was a strange procedure by his colleagues.

Asked about this, Kinana said the four had been arrested after “an investigation into the actions of the group was conducted”.

Tyefu is one of 198 police stations in the Eastern Cape and one of the smallest. It falls under the Makhanda police cluster.

“The protesters are also alleged to have closed the police station with padlocks and thereafter left to gather in the local community hall.”

Kinana said the police officers had to remove the padlocks in order to continue with “services to people who were not part of the protest”. –

Every weekend there is an incident here, armed robberies are out of control. We are tired of useless and unreliable police officers.