By: Jane Sithole MPL, DA Leader: Mpumalanga Province
The DA will write to the national Police Minister, Bheki Cele, and the Mpumalanga MEC for Safety and Security, Gabisile Tshabalala, requesting that urgent steps be taken to establish a Specialised Narcotics (Drug) Unit to curb the scourge of drugs in eMalahleni municipality and surrounding areas.
Despite the Medical Research Council stating that 42% of drug abuse related cases in Mpumalanga are recorded in Witbank, which is the second highest rate of drug abuse and drug related activities in South Africa, the Witbank police station does not have a specialised drug busting unit.
This came to light following an oversight inspection at the Witbank and Vosman Police Stations this week by the DA. It is simply unacceptable that Witbank has to rely on a drug unit based hundreds of kilometres away in Kwa Mhlanga. (Download pictures here, here, here and here)
The crime scourge in Witbank has become endemic to the point where, of the 19 701 total crimes reported in 2018 in Witbank, 457 are drug related and 232 are associated with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The Minister and MEC cannot continue burying their heads in the sand while communities are being overrun by drug lords and lives are lost to drug abuse. The difficulty around drug abuse and drug dealing is that the community often knows who the drug dealers are but they are losing confidence in the SAPS’s ability to rid their communities of drug lords.
It does not help that the youth, who are mostly affected by the drug problem, have to face the harsh reality of living in a Province with the second highest unemployment rate amongst the youth in South Africa.
It simply does not make sense that an area such as Witbank, which includes Vosman, Ogies, Phola and Kriel, has been left without the police capabilities necessary to adequately deal with the escalating drug crisis.
Of major concern is that, with a population of 455 227, Witbank has a shortage of police vehicles to help with fighting crime. Vehicles are shared amongst detectives, court and for complaints and emergencies. This severely hampers effective policing and keeping communities safe.
The vehicles that are available are very old with high mileage; as a result, they spend more time in the garage getting fixed as opposed to being out in the field.
Police are also unable to respond to emergencies because the police stations are severely under-staffed and under-equipped. Due to shortage of staff and shortage of ammunition, office bound officers are sometimes sent out to emergencies without adequate resources, exposing them to danger from criminal elements.
DA looks forward to a timeous intervention by the Minister and MEC to provide police stations in Witbank with more resources, especially a drug enforcement unit that will reverse the collapse of law and order necessitated by the prevalence of drug abuse.