This afternoon ActionSA was refused a prior arranged meeting with the Station Commander of the KwaNobuhle SAPS station.
The previously agreed meeting was set up by ActionSA candidate for Ward 43 in Nelson Mandela Bay, Thandazwa Cholani, to address a long-standing complaint of the community which related to the police station having no working telephone numbers.
The impact of this issue in KwaNobuhle has been a community that has been unable to contact their police station and unable to call upon law enforcement officers to address issues of crime. KwaNobuhle is a community which suffers from high levels of violent crime. It is worth noting that this by-election takes place because of the murder of the ANC ward councillor, believed to be a political assassination.
As a matter of fact, while addressing members of the media outside the police station, a woman walked out off the police station. She was covered in blood and was believed to be the victim of gender based violence. Her cries were of how she could get no assistance at the police station. A link to this video is provided here.
It was with great disappointment that we learnt of the station commander’s decision not to honour the previously agreed meeting. Reasons of protocol were cited relating to the political nature of the issue and the presence of members of the media.
ActionSA will lodge an urgent complaint with the Independent Police Investigative Directory (IPID). This complaint will document the unacceptable inaccessibility of of this police station to the community and the refusal to accept a meeting for the purpose of trying to resolve this issue.
ActionSA’s candidate in this ward 43 by-election, Thadazwa Cholani, has launched a campaign that seeks to fight for her forgotten community within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.
ActionSA will support her efforts in every way possible to ensure that our slogan for the campaign ‘Makuhoywe Nobuhle’ are not just words, but actions for this community.
