Residents of Honeydew and Johannesburg Central are under siege, says the DA

The DA Gauteng's spokesperson for community safety Crezane Bosch said residents of Honeydew and Johannesburg Central areas are living in fear for their lives and their belongings

This comes after the two police stations recorded the highest number of serious crimes in the province, according to the fourth quarter crime statistics of 2021/2022 announced by the Police Minister Bheki Cele on Friday.

The statistics revealed Johannesburg Central Police Station was leading in Gauteng with the highest number of cases in community reported serious crimes with 2021 cases reported, contact crime with 988 cases, murder with 35 cases, kidnapping with 40 cases, trio crimes with 83 cases, robbery at non-residential premises with 61 cases and robbery in cash in transit with one case reported.

In second position was the Honeydew Police Station that recorded 2 149 community reported serious crimes cases, 724 contact crime cases, 45 rape cases, 122 trio crimes cases, 45 carjacking cases and 38 robbery at residential premises cases.

Bosch said it was a clear indication the residents of the jurisdiction of these police stations were in danger and it was worrying the police stations had been constantly in the top five in the province in terms of serious crimes being reported.

“Honeydew SAPS is struggling to ensure residents' safety because it lacks adequate resources, and it covers a huge area which includes Cosmo City and Zandspruit Informal Settlement. The resources at this police station are overstretched and there is an urgent need for two police stations to ensure that proper policing takes place,” Bosch said.

The spokesperson added for too long, the Gauteng MEC for Community Safety Faith Mazibuko and the SAPS Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela had promised to intervene and assist these worst performing police stations.

“Surely, these crime statistics are a clear indication that their interventions are not yielding any positive results,” Bosch said.

“The DA will also continue to fight to ensure that all our police stations are well equipped with all the necessary resources to fight crime. We will be conducting oversight inspections to the Honeydew and Johannesburg Central police stations to ascertain their challenges and report back to the department which has a responsibility of ensuring the safety of our residents.”