The police will not attend to a crime or any riotous scene in Princess that might lead to larger-scale chaos near the Princess informal settlement.
This is according to a police reservist known to the record that tipped the media off to cables being stolen in broad daylight on Wednesday 12 November. Residents of the Princess informal settlement took to the opposite side Albertina Sisulu Road (previously Main Reef) to make illegal electricity connections.
“The police simply won’t send out back-up vehicles to the scene, I have tried convincing them,” the reservist said, adding that “residents that pay for electricity are being deserted by the authorities”.
When the record photographed informal settlers caught in the act on Wednesday, other settlers alerted them and the journalist was pelted with rocks. The reservist alleged that the government discourages the police from getting involved.
“The police are too scared of the informal settlers rioting again; they have enough personnel to control such situations but simply do not want to deal with the aftermath,” he said, referring to a case in February when a woman was chased from her home which was ransacked during a Princess riot (Whites warned: South Road ‘hostage’ house vandalised again, 23 February).
“It seems they don’t want to take preventative or proactive measures but would rather deal with the issue after somebody gets hurt,” the reservist said.
He revealed that police react to an unrest alert only once a person or people has been attacked, as was the case three weeks ago when police reacted after an elderly motorist’s vehicle was pelted with rocks.
After numerous attempts to contact various police officers and communications personnel at the Roodepoort police station, the record finally came in contact with Brigadier Thandi Kupiso, the station commander. After explaining the situation, Kupiso argued that the journalist should have followed procedure and contacted the spokesperson Nonhlanhla Khumalo first. Khumalo was not available at first and later recommended speaking to Kupiso, furnishing the record with her contact details. After giving the record the full runaround it was decided that Khumalo should attain cable theft statistics for Roodepoort. Khumalo committed to doing so on Thursday (20 November), when she is back in the office after having taken leave.
“I am actually on leave right now,” Khumalo said, “I’m just attending to your queries because Kupiso called me in.”
Metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said the enforcement of by-laws regarding electricity is part of their duties, however he was not made aware of the incident on Wednesday.
“JMPD would act against a person who has made an illegal connection by arresting such a person,” he said.
Minnaar recommended residents report such incidents through the JMPD call centre on 011 375 5911.
