ALI MPHAKI
D ESPITE the government having spent R161 million on private security to guard police stations nationwide, safety and security at police stations in Soweto is highly compromised.
The security is so lax, you could walk in and out with a bomb without anyone asking questions.
This reality was brought home on Friday when reporters from The Star visited the Kliptown, Moroka, Jabulani, Meadowlands, Orlando and Diepkloof police stations.
Entering the police stations was like walking into a supermarket. And the easy access could leave police stations vulnerable to attack, especially after last week’s incident at the Rosebank police station, where station commander Lieutenant-Colonel Thandi Mkhize was shot and injured and Captain Neelavathi Naidu was shot dead by a police clerk who later turned the gun on himself.
The clerk, who was facing possible dismissal, had entered the police station and gone into Mkhize’s office.
Police officers we spoke to said it was no use complaining about security when nothing was being done to improve the situation.
“You just have to keep your eyes open and watch what’s behind your shoulder,” said a Kliptown warrant officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa told Parliament earlier this year that the SAPS had spent R161.5 million in the 2009/10 financial year on 48 private security companies to guard various SAPS premises.
He said it was cost-effective to outsource the guarding of premises as it made trained officers available to perform police duties.
When The Star’s reporters arrived at the Kliptown police station on Friday afternoon, a security guard was struggling to fix the boom gate to the officials’ parking lot. The other security officer, a woman, was standing idly chewing gum. Both were unarmed and were not wearing name tags.
We were able to pass the reception area, teeming with a raucous group of police officers, and proceed unhindered via a long passage leading to the detectives’ offices and the firearm-licensing offices.
There was some semblance of order at the Moroka police station, where a uniformed security guard issued us with a visitor’s register to be signed by the person we were visiting.
The situation at the Jabulani police station was hopeless. The three female security guards at the entrance were not in uniform and the boom gate was lying on the ground. One of the guards was selling loose cigarettes.
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union deputy general secretary Lebogang Phepheng said his organisation would investigate the tender documents relating to the hiring of the security companies in question.