Members of the public recently complained about being unable to reach Macassar Police Station on their telephones during load shedding.
“This is day 3 (17 April) that the emergency line of the station is not working,” reads one of the complaints from a community member. “There is no formal notification from the police about their telephone lines not working.”
Community leaders have apparently had to contact police officers on their private cellphones to log calls for police assistance.
Ward 109 Councillor Peter Helfrich confirmed many residents had contacted him to complain about the station’s telephone lines not working during load shedding.
“This places the lives of our residents at risk,” he pointed out. “I do not blame the local police station or our local officers. I blame the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele. Last year I wrote to the minister to ask him to provide our local police station with more resources and manpower to capacitate it to do its job more effectively, so it can operate at full capacity, especially during load shedding, which seems to be the opportune time for most criminals in our ward to conduct their criminal activities. Well, the minister’s office promised to come back to us. It never did.”
Macassar police confirmed the telephone lines do not work during load shedding because they are not connected to a generator. The police remind community members to call 10111 during load shedding to report any crimes they witness.
“I want to encourage residents, when they are not able to get through to our local police station, to call the City of Cape Town’s Emergency line on 021 480 7700,” said Helfrich.
