03 October 2017

The Minister of Police Mr. Fikile Mbalula met and engaged with the community of Marikana in Philippi Cape Town. The meeting and engagement followed tragic criminal acts where people where shot and killed.

The Minister first met with the families who lost their loved ones and passed condolences on behalf of government and the South African Police Service ( SAPS ). Minister Mbalula expressed shock and outrage over the killing of their family members and promised that the police will work hard in bringing the perpetrators to book.

Minister Mbalula shared words of encouragement with the family.

"We are here to be with you to say you are not alone and the police will work together with other law enforcement agencies to bring those involved to account. Accept our sincere condolences from government and SAPS and the people of South Africa," Minister said.

Along with the leadership of SAPS present, the Minister engaged the community on service delivery complaints. The community through its leaders expressed outrage over the killings and low trust of law enforcement agencies and demanded that SAPS better responds to their pleas.

Having listened, the Minister Fikile Mbalula assured the community that their pleas are heard. The Minister introduced the new Station Commander, Colonel Bongani Mthakathi as the Phillipi East Police Station commander in response to some of the concerns raised by the people.

"We came here to say we heard you. For far too long our people die because of crime. For too long we have seen and heard of cases of gender-based violence and the trio-crimes. We have acted in many cases and we could always do more and this we will do. It is concerning to hear the people complain about our own SAPS officials being suspects of criminal acts or failing to respond to their needs. We have acted and made arrest of our own police officers in other areas. We must also acknowledge that many of our police officers do their job and the few rotten apples amongst them betray the police budge," Minister Mbalula said.

The Minister of Police spoke of his visits to Nyanga, Blue Downs, Elsies River and Mfuleni that happened since he became the Minister of Police and the addition of resources and interventions made. An Operation Command Center was opened at Blue Downs, Mobile Police Station was handed over at Elsies River and additional resources for Nyanga were sanctioned.

The Police Minister promised the people of Marikana in Phillipi that more will be done to restore order in their community.