Commissioner Mawela says there should be no area in Gauteng police are afraid to enter

Gauteng Police Commissioner Elias Mawela said there should be no area in the province where police were afraid to enter.

The decomposing body of an adult male was not collected for over 24 hours in an informal settlement that was north of Pretoria.

On Thursday, residents from Dikolobeng told the publication they reported the discovery of the body to police but were told officers did not come into the area.

Thabiso Masango from the Dikolobeng informal settlement said police, ambulances, and other emergency services did not enter the area due to fear of crime.

“The people here do not have identity papers or anything else. There is no control. It is just a detached place with no committees or anything.”

Meanwhile, Mawela said that while the environmental design of the area was not ideal, that should not be an excuse.

“We condemn – we don’t want the emergency services to take too long to attend to things like this. They can’t complain about the capacity because we are here in big numbers. Those who are attending to complaints, they should have been here a long time ago.”

Mawela said that issues of upgrading informal settlements, like improving roads and installing streetlights, were the mandate of municipalities, not police.

-EWN

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