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A severe lack of police vehicles, human resources, and a lack of proper regular maintenance of infrastructure is hindering the delivery of police services by Alexandra SAPS.

This police station which is servicing a population of over 700 000 is battling to prevent and fight crime due to a lack of much-needed resources.

Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng conducted oversight inspections at Midrand, Alexandra, Bramley, and Sandringham police stations as part of its #GautengPoliceWatch campaign.

See pictures here, here and here

The four stations are fully functional even though crime continues to be at the epicentre of Gauteng residents' woes and is hard to manage.

Alexandra Police Station has 33 vacant positions and 12 broken police vehicles sitting in the mechanical workshops. This makes it extremely difficult for the police to maintain proper and regular police visibility.

The station is in dire need of maintenance in its cells, and the building lights and water pipes are not fully functional.

Despite all the challenges faced by this station, the police officers remain dedicated to their work. They have arrested suspects involved in a deadly shooting in Alexandra, and yesterday they also arrested two suspects for selling illegal firearms.

Furthermore, the DA strongly believes that the adoption of its Community Safety Bill will improve the relationship between police and the communities which they serve. The bill will improve police intelligence so that police officers can apprehend suspects involved in criminal activities.

The DA will also be tabling questions to the Gauteng MEC of Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko, to ascertain when the Alexandra Police Station will be provided with sufficient resources.

We demand that MEC Mazibuko provides a timeline as to when the vacant positions will be filled and when the police vehicles at mechanic workshops will be fixed and sent to their respective stations.

Our people deserve a police service that is well-equipped to be able to prevent and fight crime in their communities.

Issued by Crezane Bosch MPL - DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Community Safety