Generators at all police stations by next year

IT WILL take another 10 months and more than R23 million before all police stations in the country have generators to remain open to the public during load shedding.

The Department of Public Works yesterday told the parliamentary police committee that it was about to issue tenders to install generators at the 181 police stations unable to operate during outages. The aim was to complete this rollout in June.

Public Works is responsible for 868 of the 1 140 police stations, 667 of which are equipped with either generators or solar panels. The SAPS is in full control of 272 police stations, which can continue working even if the lights go out.

The request for generators was made to the department in May last year after police insiders told The Star that the SAPS’s request to supply its own generators had been turned down.

Public Works deputy director-general Sam Vilakazi told MPs that in many cases the supply of diesel went hand in hand with other infrastructure delivery like sanitation and sewage treatment facilities. The generators vary in strength from 35 to 100 kilowatts an hour.

The supply of diesel was the SAPS’s responsibility because it was part of the day-to-day maintenance, he said.

The SAPS said it had installed an SMS alert system to notify station personnel when supplies run low, so they could alert the provincial authorities to top up. – Marianne Merten