The improvement of service delivery at station level and intensifying police visibility, has informed the oversight visit, by the Police Ministry and management of the South African Police Service (SAPS) to some of the high crime policing precincts, in the Gqeberha area of the Eastern Cape.
Minister of Police, General Bheki Cele, the Deputy Minister of Police, Cassel Mathale and the National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Fannie Masemola spent two days assessing the state of policing service delivery, in and around Gqeberha.
The first day 10 March 2023, of the oversight visit to the province commenced with a briefing and a walk through of the recently refurbished and expanded Gqeberha Science Laboratory. His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa is due to officially launch the state of the art laboratory, which is already up and running, operating with a fully-fledged DNA processing analysis section.
The second day of the oversight visit to Gqeberha saw a high level engagement between the top police management and Station commanders and District Commissioners of crime heavy policing areas.
The aim of the meeting was to identify and implement short and long term interventions to address challenges in the performance of each police station. Following the high level engagement, Police Minister, General Bheki Cele led several visits to Community Service Centre’s (CSC) where the Ministry and the SAPS management interacted with officers and members of the public on the standard of service delivery.
Kwa Zakhele, Gelvandale and New Brighton are some of the police stations that were visited by the delegation, aimed at ensuring that all SAPS service points provide professional, effective and high quality easily accessible to all community members, all the time.
The last day of the visit to Gqeberha ended off with Minister Cele and Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Nomthetheleli Mene leading from the front during disruptive night time crime prevention operations, focusing on some of the troublesome policing areas.
“Police management in each province must understand that crime multiplies on weekends and is in many cases in transit, our crime statistics show that some crimes are prevented through increased police visibility. So it goes without saying that the time for sitting in air conditioned offices is over, commanders must walk with their members and ensure that while operational plans are implemented, they are at the forefront of nurturing community relations whilst they strengthen the connections between police and community policing structures.” concluded Cele.
The disruptive police operations which include police patrols, stop and search operations, vehicle check-points and road blocks, are now a weekly national policing feature that aims to prevent crime and improve police visibility and response time in all provinces.
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