Racism in Mpumalanga police stations affect service delivery

28 August 2009

Allegations of racism affected service delivery in some of Mpumalanga police stations affected service delivery, Safety, Security and Liaison MEC, Ms Sibongile Manana, said on Thursday. 

Speaking at the award giving ceremony of the MEC’s Excellence Awards to acknowledge the best performing police stations in Mpumalanga, Ms Manana said due to the seriousness of racism allegations, her department had instituted an investigation and will attend to the findings this financial year.  

The MEC said racism impacted negatively in the fight against crime because some police officers could not work efficiently.

“The findings of the investigations are that there are indeed acts and practices of racism in some of the police stations and that these practices do not manifest themselves openly and it remains difficult for victims to deal with it head-on... The department with SAPS will come up with a strategy to address these findings in the current financial year,” said MEC Manana.

She added that the police worked under serious constraints and many went beyond the call of duty without the public recognising their efforts. She however said incidents of racism had a negative impact on their morale and subsequently affected service delivery.

“I have realised that despite numerous constraints there are members of the police who believe in results be it as individuals or as part of a team within the stations,” said Manana.

Manana complained the majority of the police stations did not achieve the national set target of a 7% to 10% reduction in contact crimes. She said another challenge was that SAPS had to improve on the overall rating as per the SAPS Performance Chart 

Manana was however happy to announce the best performing police stations saying despite the non-achievement of the national target, Mpumalanga did exceptionally well in the reduction of crime.

“Credit must go to all men and women who have shown commitment in the reduction of crime, their efforts of making Mpumalanga a safe and secured province have not gone unnoticed,” said Manana.

Manana explained that some police stations won as a result of community involvement in crime prevention activities.

“Let us roll up our sleeves and work harder in the spirit of building the nation to help change the lives of the people for the better. We have set standards for ourselves and therefore it is unfortunate that there are no shortcuts,” said Manana.

Like last year, Schoemansdal scooped the overall best performing police station in Mpumalanga.

The results are as follows:

MEC’s Excellence Awards 2008/09 Financial Year Results. Regional Awards  

Ehlanzeni Region: Winner and runner position

Gert Sibande Region: Winner and runner up positions

Nkangala Region: Winner and runner up position

Provincial overall results

Enquiries:

Joseph Mabuza
Tel: 013 766 4055
Cell: 082 678 1450 

Issued by:  Department of Safety, Security and Liaison

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