Masemola Police Station without power for three years
Ga-Masemola – Dozens of community members from Ga-Masemola and neighbouring villages have on Monday 29 April, marched to hand-over their memorandum of demands at Masemola Police Station.
They were complaining against lack of electricity at the police station, saying it is unable to deliver policing services to the communities after it has been without power supply for the past three years.
Masemola Police Station serves thirteen villages within Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality (MLM). The villages are, Setlaboswane, Mphane, Makgwabe, Malope, Maswanyaneng, Maraganeng, Pitsaneng, Apel Cross, Tswaing, Thabampse, Molebeledi, Mahlolwaneng and Masemola Psiring.
According to residents, the police station has no back-up power supply and some of the cases have to be registered at other police stations. The emergency telephone line of the police station is not working leading to the police to take time in responding to the emergency community complaints.
The community says they have lost hope as they cannot report a case at the police station, especially during the night because the station is not operating because of the power outage.
A community leader, Louis Nchabeleng, said they were marching to raise their concerns in a memorandum directly to Minister of Police General Bheki Cele.
“For the past three years we have made numerous complaints with local authorities including the Limpopo Provincial Commissioner of the police. It is not helping because none of them considered our concerns,” he said.
According to Nchabeleng, the only time when the community visit the police station is when they are going to certify copies and in need of affidavits.
“The community is inconvenienced because they cannot report cases when they need police services, especially during the night. We are worried that crime is also escalating in the villages because the criminals are taking advantage of the situation,” he said.
Nchabeleng alleges that some of the police officials stationed at Masemola are now considering taking transfers to other police stations after citing the poor working conditions.
“The police officials are fed up about the poor working conditions in the station. Everything is a mess, the toilets are not properly working. They can’t even access internet to make their work easier because the computers are not working,” he said.
Nchabeleng said they are demanding Minister Cele to appoint a service provider that will permanently fix the electricity problem at Masemola Police Station.
Cele was given seven days to respond to the community concerns and according to Nchabeleng, the community will stage a serious total shutdown if the memorandum will not be responded in time.
