Metro Police down to four vehicles, says DA

The Metro Police has four working vehicles and 18 officers available per shift for Nelson Mandela Bay.

This is according to the DA, which says the service has been reduced to a crippled force.

On Thursday, DA MPL Retief Odendaal unveiled plans to make the Metro Police effective and efficient outside the KwaNobuhle satellite office.

He was joined by the DA’s Eastern Cape provincial leader, Andrew Whitfield, DA Winterhoek constituency leader Horatio Hendricks, provincial spokesperson Georgina Faldtman and councillor Jason Grobbelaar.

Odendaal said the city had massive problems with crime and syndicates targeting public infrastructure.

“Until we can fight back against those targeted syndicates, no matter how much money you’re going to invest in electrical infrastructure, you’re going to keep on repairing it.”

He said the police could not do it alone.

“They need assistance from the city, and the city is not providing any assistance.

“To ensure that we support the Metro Police, we must increase [the budget] so that we can have more boots on the ground.”

However, municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said 11 vehicles were operational for the Metro Police, while the others were undergoing repairs and maintenance

He said the Metro Police had a fleet of 50 vehicles.

This included trucks, light delivery vehicles, motorcycles, sedans and minibuses.

“The municipality acknowledges the operational challenges this presents and confirms that efforts are under way to return the fleet to full service as urgently as possible.

“About the recently received fleet allocation, two vehicles were designated for the Metro Police.

He said the KwaNobuhle Metro Police Precinct had never been closed.

“The department is currently transitioning into upgraded premises located on the same site.

“The renovations are intended to provide a more secure working environment and to accommodate a larger staff complement in line with operational requirements.

“It is also important to note that the KwaNobuhle facility functions primarily as a Metro Police deployment centre and not as a public walk-in service centre.

“At the time of the reported visit, operational teams would have been deployed in the field.

“In addition, traffic services operates on a different shift system and deployment cycle from Metro Police operations, which may result in varying staff visibility at different times.”

Odendaal said that at any given time, the city had 18 officers on a shift.

“The Metro Police have 22 vehicles allocated to them, of which currently only four are operational.

“Those are horrific statistics, and if you think about the geographical area that needs to be served, those vehicles cannot get everywhere.

“We believe that within the first year of taking office, we’ll be able to double our Metro Police force, and we then want to expand it to at least 500 members by the end of our five-year term.”

The local government elections take place in November.

“This city insourced security, about 682 of them, in 2017.

“What we can do is we can upskill some of those people and put them through the Metro Police training and absorb from the security services in-house and transfer them over to Metro Police, provided that they qualify,” Odendaal said.

He said having competent senior management was key in the safety and security directorate to fight crime.

He said the Metro Police had not had a chief in three years.

Whitfield said the city’s dark streets were a contributing factor.

“A lot of the electricity outages that we face in Nelson Mandela Bay are linked to vandalism.

“We’ve got cable thieves going into communities.

“They feel they can do it with impunity because there are no Metro Police.”

Grobbelaar said that with spending as of February at 18% for the department, they had asked for virements [transfer of budgetary funds] to increase spending.

“They have purchased more vehicles. We’re waiting for the latest report to see where that stands.”

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