Community members from Bityi location in Mthatha confirmed that the involvement of the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service (CSPS) might bring best results in this community.
These members hosted two campaigns, last week. The first one was held at Viedgiesville Multi-purpose Centre, followed by the second one which was held at Xhwili location, also in Mthatha.
The aim of these campaigns was to create a platform to engage communities affected by gender-based violence (GBV) and other criminal acts in the area.
They were also aimed at engaging communities with an objective to identify challenges and come up with corrective measures and recommendations for the Bityi Police Station.
These members have collaborated with the Eastern Cape Department of Community Safety and South African Police Services, and have embarked on gender-based violence and case-closed campaigns.
The director responsible for overseeing communications for the department, Phinda Ntsaluba, said during this case-closed campaign, the community members were checking their cases and lodging complaints. He confirmed that detectives or investigators would provide feedback on cases reported.
“Our duty is to look at the way police officers are doing their job and take action where necessary. We are building a good relationship between us and the community members.
“We received a report from our provincial counterparts, stating that there is a high rate of crime in the Bityi location,” said Ntsaluba.
She added that in the past five years they had been focusing in Lusikisiki and they were then redirected to Bityi. Ntsaluba said they decided to intervene and build the good relationship between the two by bringing a campaign.
She said all the locations who used the Bityi Police Station had complained that they received poor service from this police station. She confirmed that they had called all the residents who reported cases and received a case number from this police station but did not get a response from the police.
“Maybe even if he/she got the response from the police but the case was not followed after that, we called those people to resubmit all those cases so that we could assist in re-registering them. The officials from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are also here to look the prosecution of all those cases.”
Ntsaluba said they wanted to focus in Bityi so that they could come up with the solution. She said that they had committed themselves that after these two campaigns they would sit down with other members of Justice Crime Prevention and Security Cluster (JCPS) and the OR Tambo District Municipality and come up with a plan so that community members could be protected.
