Marabastart business owners and residents are fed up with improper police conduct in the area. This came after the high level of crime in the area. The business owners and residents attended a community imbizo hosted by the Pretoria Central SAPS, where they complained that police ask them for bribes, of not having sufficient processes to report crime.
“Can’t they come with their uniform and their name tags instead of them coming looking like gangsters? Some guy with a gun with a vest written police somewhere small on it. Most of them are coming at us like that every day and they’re driving state vehicles,” Nguna said, a small business owner.
Tshwane North station commander Mr Mashaba said he would ask the crime intelligence team to crack down on the practice.
“The problem is you sometimes. If you don’t have papers and don’t want to apply for the correct ones and you want to do things using shortcuts, it’s always going to be a problem. If I am a South African or foreign national with the right papers, there can’t be anyone demanding money from you,” Mashaba said, Station commander.
“We hope that the level of crime will decrease if the police work together with us. We feel unsafe at all, this has to end and police have to start patrolling around.” Said, Mr Baloi, small business owner.
Some residents and small business owners were grateful for the work the police do. The stakeholders are looking forward to holding a similar engagement at the start of the festive season, as locals say this is a time rife with robberies.
