Yesterday’s sod turning for the construction of a South African Police Service (SAPS) station in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain and the opening of the Makhaza SAPS station in Khayelitsha are long overdue.
These, like other areas across the Cape metro, are plagued by high levels of crime and consistent police under resourcing. Makhaza residents have been waiting for a decade, since 2014, for a station to be constructed. It was in 2012 when the then Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille in her aim to ensure SAPS delivers a professional and dignified service, instituted the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry (KCI) to investigate complaints of allegations of inefficiency at the three Khayelitsha police stations, namely Site B, Lingelethu West and Harare. In recommendation 19(90) of their report the KCI welcomed SAPS’ proposal that a station had to be constructed in Makhaza, as for all those years residents had to use the Harare SAPS station. At this stage Harare has a police-to-population ratio of one officer for every 773 residents.
The KCI in the same recommendation also made it very clear that the resourcing had to significantly increase in the entire Khayelitsha area and with the resource allocation to Makhaza station, it shouldn’t only be a transfer from Harare station to Makhaza. We urge SAPS to ensure this new Makhaza SAPS station, which is led by a Lieutenant Colonel is afforded the necessary human resources that are required, so that they are able to alleviate the pressure that Harare and the other stations are experiencing.
Tafelsig station is due to be completed towards the backend of November 2026. These residents are currently using the services at Mitchells Plain station, which has a police-to-population ratio of 1:600. Had SAPS been under the capable management of the Western Cape Government(WCG), these stations would’ve been constructed a long time ago. We would not allow communities to experience these levels of crime and not attend to it. This is part of the reason why we launched our safety plan in 2019 and initiated our LEAP officers in 2020, so that they can assist SAPS in their crime fighting efforts. As the WCG, we want our residents to live in safer communities and in dignity, and a critical step towards achieving this is accessible and well-resourced stations.
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