Pressure by the DA has finally led the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele to conduct an oversight inspection at the Ga-Rankuwa Police Station today, Friday 17 June, to see for himself that the station has no electricity.
Minister Cele held a meeting at the station, with the engineers from the National Police Department, the Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General, Elias Mawela and other department officials to investigate what led to the Ga-Rankuwa Police Station being without electricity for almost 10 months.
The department and all relevant officials have been given one month to resolve the continuous outages and the Minister committed to visiting the police station again by no later than 17 July 2022 to ensure that the electricity outage is resolved, and power is restored.
This is all a result of the DA’s efforts by sending numerous questions and letters to the Minister demanding immediate interventions to restore electricity and police service delivery at the station.
The DA leadership in Gauteng, including the Gauteng DA Leader, Solly Msimanga MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Community Safety, Crezane Bosch MPL, Constituency Leader, Adriana Randall MPL, and City of Tshwane DA Councillor Ofentse Madzebatela led a community picket outside the police station last week Wednesday evening.
This police station has been struggling for months without power, which hindered the staff from performing their duties fully and forced them to lock the gates as soon as it was dark.
The DA is relieved that there is the final action in this regard, as this is long overdue and should be prioritised. The Community of Ga-Rankuwa deserves to feel safe, and the DA will continue to monitor the situation daily to ensure that nothing is taken for granted and that the power is restored as a matter of urgency.
Furthermore, there should be a long-term solution between the SAPS, Eskom and the City of Tshwane to ensure that this police station has a sustainable electricity supply to ensure the safety of the residents.