The Mfuleni Community Policing Forum welcomed the announcement that the City of Cape Town has offered the police space in the municipal building in Mfuleni to serve as a dedicated police office for the people of the community.
The announcement was made after a meeting between the minister of police, Professor Firoz Cachalia, and the Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, as part of his ongoing engagement with local government stakeholders to address crime and policing challenges in the city.
Stakeholder engagement
In a statement the City describes the meeting as “a series of community stakeholder engagements, where the minister had the opportunity to hear directly from residents about the safety concerns they face daily”. In Mfuleni, one of the central issues raised by the community was the lack of a dedicated police station. Residents expressed deep frustration that the current station, situated in Blue Downs, does not adequately serve the rapidly growing population of Mfuleni and fails to meet their safety and service delivery needs. In response to this concern, and as a direct outcome of the meeting, Hill-Lewis has agreed to make available 380 m² of office space in the municipal building in Mfuleni. This space will be made available to the police and will serve as a dedicated police station for Mfuleni residents. While the scope of services to be provided from this site is still being finalised, this interim solution is a significant and immediate step towards improving police visibility and accessibility for the Mfuleni community,” read the statement from the mayor’s office.
The Mayor has also offered the police the adjoining erf for the future construction of a fully-fledged police station. “I commend the mayor and the City of Cape Town for this demonstration of cooperative governance in action. It is through such practical and responsive partnerships that we will begin to rebuild trust between communities and law enforcement. The fight against crime requires urgency, coordination, and accountability. Most importantly, it requires that we listen to communities and act on the concerns they raise. This outcome reflects our shared commitment to doing exactly that,” stated Cachalia.
High crime area
Hill-Lewis said: “The City gladly offers urgent help for the police to establish a fully-fledged police station in Mfuleni. This is a very hard hit area and crime must urgently be brought under control to make the community safer for residents. Working together, the City and the police can be a far greater force in the fight against crime. The regional Department of Public Works and the City will now settle a lease agreement for the Mfuleni site, with the police only needing to cover water and lights. Access will be arranged as soon as possible for the police to occupy the space.”
Frans Mashaba, chair of the CPF, says they are waiting for the new plan to be implemented. “We hope then that the police station in Blue Downs will be called Blue Downs Police Station and the new one will be called Mfuleni Police Station,” says Mashaba.
It has been an oddity for years that the current station in Blue Downs, situated next to the Blue Downs court, is called the Mfuleni Police Station.
But Justin April, a resident from Silversands, a neighbourhood situated behind the current station, says he does not care about names. “If Mfuleni gets their own station, maybe we can get more police focussing on our areas, because we are seeing a rise in crime and the police cannot attend to our matters,” he says.
