The Laudium community feel that police are no longer working to protect them Photo Pexels
Laudium – On 15 March Laudium community members gathered outside the local police station to protest the arrest of their Councillor Naeem Patel and two members of the local Community Police Forum (CPF). Various charges, which community members believe are false, have been laid against the three men. .
The arrest of the councillor and the CPF members is a typical example of what is wrong with the police service in Laudium, said Vera Ndaba, Laudium Resident and Former CPF Member. It is alleged Patel and the CPF members rescued and protected a man, who was caught stealing electricity meter boxes from the public, and then brought him to the police. Thereafter they were charged by the police.
“This person who has been stealing meters is well known to the community. He has been defended countless times. We were excited that he was arrested only to figure out that the next morning he was released. He was even escorted home by the Laudium SAPS.”
According to Ndaba, police are known to advise criminals to lay counter charges against CPF members and the community. Which is what she believes happened in this case.
“If you make an arrest of someone or if you are a community and you get a hold of a criminal, they always ask the criminal beforehand if they were approached in any way. If they say yes then they tell the criminal when you get inside the police station lay a counter charge of assault or kidnapping. Instead of actually processing the arrest of that person, they are encouraging that person to get the community arrested.”
The relationship between the police and the community
The relationship between the police and community needs to be strong and trustworthy in order for crime to be eradicated. While CPF members are supposed to be involved in helping police end criminality, it seems that only certain crimes must be dealt with and others left, explained Ndaba.
“There are certain crimes that the CPF are not supposed to touch, turn a blind eye to and throw under the carpet. What crimes they need us to tackle, they leave us to do it. So it raises an eyebrow. If someone steals cables and gets money from those cables and you release that person out of jail, what question does it leave for the community when it comes to the police of Laudium?”
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Changing the situation
To fight crime, police and the community have to trust each other and be able to rely on each other. The only way this can happen is if every police officer is changed in that station, explained Ndaba. For her, those who operate in that station are all corrupt and until they are out, the situation won’t change.
“We need that whole station to be dissolved and we need police officers from a different province or city. It doesn’t matter where they come from but that police station just has too much comfortability in it. It has the worst corruption possible. From the top all the way to the bottom. Laying a charge is nothing in that police station.”
To hear more about the situation from Vera Ndaba and the way the community sees the councillor, listen to the podcast here:
