Eastern Cape: Abathembu King welcomes #TraditionalPolicing concept rollout BuM…

Eastern Cape: Abathembu King welcomes #TraditionalPolicing concept rollout

BuMbane, Mthatha: Bumbane Great Place under the Abathembu Traditional Authority led by King Azenathi Dalindyebo is the third kingdom to receive a new police service centre, mobile police station, four police officers and two police vans as part of the rollout of Traditional Policing concept today at Bumbane outside Mthatha.

The Abathembu Frontline Service Centre was officially opened today and is already providing an essential service to the Thembuland rural community.

The Eastern Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lt Gen Ntshinga outlining the purpose of the day said, "It is with joy for me to visit a royal place. During this safety month we found it befitting to come here to officially launch traditional policing concept. We started this programme last year and agreed on a partnership between police and traditional authorities."

She said Eastern Cape is unique province that includes former Transkei, Ciskei and the former republic.

"This means policing such unique area will also be unique. We want to end the unacceptable situation of people travelling long distances before opening cases or a situation where crime committed is not reported because of inaccessible police service," added the Commissioner.

Through guidance and blessing of National Commissioner a project plan was conceptualized.

"We would like to have safer streets and villages resulting in increase of the public trust with the police," she elaborated.

Lt Gen Ntshinga said the aim is to improve police reaction time and general service in order to break the backbone of serious crimes while impacting positively on youth development.

"We have recruited young people on horseback who displayed enthusiasm to work with police. These young people's involvement will positively impact on policing and visibility,” she explained.

Emphasising the key deliverables she said police service centre with mobile stations will bring policing service to the people. The mobile will travel from point to point to offer frontline police services. Two police vans have been added staffed with four police officers rotating and taking turns on the mobile and service centre.

There is also a plan to recruit reservists to beef up service points. In the process community members will be recruited to join CPF and trained to offer counselling services.

Turning to the chiefs she requested kingdoms to monitor parolees so that 'they don’t go back to crime after release from prison.'

"We would also like our kingdoms to report presence of unknown people as some are wanted for previously committed crimes. This is a new concept and we need your help to make it a reality," concluded Lt Gen Ntshinga.

"We aim to achieve vision 2030 objective of making rural people safe and link our model with school safety as well as tertiary institutions and rural policing infrastructure provision. We want to be accessible to the people with our services and to impact on sector policing as well." she concluded.

Mec Tikana said she is concerned about the request of payment for community work like combatting stock theft while 'our president is busy fundraising to create jobs as well as pay debt.'

"We need to decide what kind of South Africa we want. We need South Africa that allows women and children to walk freely," she said.

She also expressed her delight to the successful launch giving credit to Lt Gen Ntshinga and her team.

"This process will help eradicate mob justice," added Mec Tikana.

King Azenathi of the Thembuland acknowledged the Department of Transport, Safety and Liaison for honouring the realisation of the launch.

"Crime has increased drastically and l was shocked to learn that we also have tik in the rural villages. We must work hard to identify culprits behind the transportation of drugs to rural areas. I am grateful for Gen Swart’s initiative and welcome it with open eyes. When we spoke about time frames, it was last year August but five years later the idea is implemented,” said the king.

As Kingdom of Abathembu we salute you he concluded.

Various departments like COGTA, Provincial CPF, Local Traditional Council and strategic partners shared messages of support pledging to support the Traditional Policing concept.

The roadshow will continue to Nyandeni and Qamata traditional authorities. #RuralSafety

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