The cops in the Mpumalanga village of Fernie confirmed that they received a memorandum calling for the end to the abuse of state cars by them in the local police station.
Fernie station commander Captain Zacharia Mkhwanazi told the 013NEWS reporter on Friday night that the memorandum has now been forwarded to acting cluster police commander in the Gert Sibande region, Colonel Winnie Mavuso, at Ermelo headquarters.
Mkhwanazi said: “On matters to do with the station the cluster commander takes over.”
The South African National Civic Organisation, or simply Sanco, in the Gert Sibande region led the march on Friday morning to the Fernie police station near Swaziland, in the Mpumalanga village, and demanded the end to the abuse of state cars by Fernie cops.
The cops in the village are accused of transporting friends, relatives and girlfriends with police vehicles and of not fighting crime efficiently.
Sources in Ermelo police station said the memorandum was handed over to Mavuso by Mkhwanazi, who drove from Fernie to Ermelo late on Friday afternoon immediately after he received the memorandum of demands from Sanco and had now been reported to Mpumalanga provincial commander Lieutenant-General Mondli Zuma.
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The civic organisation also charged there were delays in dealing with those who burnt public properties during a protest earlier and wants the end to the burning of public properties during protests and for cops to make sure such are always protected.
“We want the SAPS to isolate and deal with corrupt policemen who collude with criminals tormenting the community and the greater protection of public property that is destructed during protests and through the criminal activities,” it said.
Last night Mkhwanazi told 013NEWS that though these were issues of the attention of cluster commanders but the issues of burning of public properties by angry community members were issues that had to do with service delivery “and that doesn’t fall within our mandate to prevent not to occur”.
“Other issues in the memorandum we can respond to but the protest issue doesn’t fall within our mandate. Well, we can do all we can to protect buildings but we don’t cause people to protest for service delivery.
“And on the issue of abuse of state cars I repeat to the community to report those officers to me each time they see them do it to ensure good management.
“Together we can do it and I will take actions against those officers. I always say this in community meetings,” the local police commander said.
(edited by MLM)
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