Here today, gone tomorrow: Dunoon residents slam mobile SAPS unit’s constant absence
DA finds Dunoon mobile station wide open and no officer on duty.
Image: Supplied
Residents in Dunoon are fuming after an extra mobile police station that briefly appeared in the area vanished the very next day, sparking claims it was only deployed during an ANC cabinet minister’s visit.
Tensions have heightened ahead of by-elections next Wednesday.
DA constituency head for Atlantis, Blaauwberg and Table View, Nicholas Gotsell, said he had previously paid a surprise visit to the area’s so-called mobile police station last year, only to find it unlocked, wide open and with no officers in sight.
Since then, he has been calling for a permanent police presence, proper CPF structures, neighbourhood watches, a community court and victim support.
He even wrote a letter to Western Cape Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile and MEC for Community Safety and Police Oversight Anroux Marais raising urgent concerns from locals.
Fast forward, eight months later on March 16, he said he was glad to see an extra mobile truck at the Dunoon recreational centre following the DA’s petition to bring policing closer to the residents.
However, the politician was shocked to find that the unit was gone, allegedly after Minister of Employment and Labour Nomakhosazana Meth had visited the area.
Gotsell said: “This stands in direct contradiction to SAPS’ own reply to a DA parliamentary question, where it was claimed that resource constraints and planning challenges limited the operation of the mobile unit in Dunoon.
“Yet, when it suits the ANC’s campaign agenda, a fully operational, well-resourced unit with personnel can be deployed overnight - only to be withdrawn just as quickly.”
When asked about the one-day deployment of the mobile police station, the Minister Meth’s spokesperson said policing operations fall under SAPS and referred questions to the police.
Spokesperson Thobeka Magcai added that the minister’s visit formed part of the department’s “Yazini” programme, which brings various government services including Home Affairs, SASSA and others directly to communities.
Police had yet to respond to queries.
Meanwhile, community activist Thobeka Pikini said residents are fed up with the lack of policing in the area.
She said: “The crime is going up every day and it’s very rare that someone gets arrested in Dunoon.
“The mobile station is at the clinic, but if you go there, you will find it’s closed or no one is there.
“At one point it was at the taxi rank, but they moved it inside by the clinic, which is further to travel for us. It’s also risky to walk that far because it’s dangerous and what if you get there and it’s closed?
“We keep fighting for it to be open 24 hours, but we just get empty promises.
“We need a police station in the area, because not everyone has money to go to Milnerton. When we call, they don’t answer or only come after two hours by then the suspects are gone.”
She added that residents hope the upcoming by-election will bring change.