20 August 2024
The Moloto village police station has been closed since 2002. Photo: Warren Mabona
Moloto village in Mpumalanga has been without a police station since 2002, when the satellite police station was closed after two police officers were shot dead at the station. The village has more than 17,500 households.
Resident Michael Phahlane told GroundUp that he has to spend R64 for a round trip in a taxi from Moloto to KwaMhlanga, about 18km away, to report crimes or to have documents certified. Phahlane said other residents who do not have money to travel have to walk and hitchhike.
“There is a lot of crime here and we need a police station. We hear sounds of gunfire almost every night. People fire guns very often because they know that there are no police officers who can arrest them. I don’t even want to be in the streets late at night as I’m scared of being shot or robbed.”
Another resident, Pinkie Masilela said KwaMhlanga police do not respond quickly to the complaints of residents.
“When you make a phone call to KwaMhlanga police station, the police officers who answer your call tell you that all the police vans are out,” said Masilela.
“Sometimes they don’t even answer the phone. Criminals steal electric cables here on the streets but KwaMhlanga police do not come here to patrol.”
Another resident, Nomasonto Msiza, said her daughter is looking for a job and has to go to KwaMhlanga to get documents certified.
“I sympathise with the families of the police who were killed. It is now more than 20 years since that incident happened and we should be having another police station by now.”
Moloto is a big village near the border between Gauteng and Mpumalanga in the Thembisile Hani Local Municipality. The village is on the side of the busy R573. It is about an hour north-east of Pretoria by car.
“There are many accidents on this road,” said taxi driver Jabulani Kabini. “We need a police station in this village so that we can quickly report drivers who drive recklessly and fight with us on this road.”
Kabini said he had been involved in a minor accident on the R573 in December 2022, and had to travel to KwaMhlanga police station to report the crash and get the accident report.
At the fenced-off site of the satellite police station, GroundUp found a small house, and shack with broken windows and another shack partly painted with Ndebele traditional designs.
Mpumalanga provincial police spokesperson Colonel Donald Mdhluli confirmed to GroundUp during a telephonic interview on 13 August that Moloto satellite police station had been closed by the SAPS management in 2002. He said the station was closed because two police officers were shot dead there in 2002 by criminals, who stole firearms. Other officers were wounded during the attack, he said.
Mdhluli said there were no plans to open the station again. “The safety of our members is also important, just like the safety of our communities. When you put members in a police station, you must also consider their safety.”
Mdhluli said Mpumalanga police sympathized with Moloto residents who have to travel to KwaMhlanga police station to report crimes or to seek other services.
In answers to follow-up questions, Mdhluli said police vehicles were assigned to wards according to a sector policing model and there should be enough vehicles to service Moloto.
He said phones at KwaMhlanga police station always work, unless load reduction has been implemented. (Load reduction is what Eskom does when local transformers are overloaded, usually by illegal connections.)
Asked about KwaMhlanga police station’s response time, Mdhluli said police do not share information of this sort with the public because criminals would use it.
He said all the complaints were attended to police prioritised cases where a person’s life is in danger, those involving children, women, vulnerable groups or where someone is held hostage with a firearm.
According to Mdhluli, residents of Moloto requested their own police station in 2018 and 2019. He said a study is currently being conducted into the establishment of a station in Moloto. He did not say who is conducting the study.
“The matter has been taken up and several meetings have been held by the national and provincial office. We are hopeful and we also got the information that a stand has been identified,” said Mdhluli.
He said KwaMhlanga station had received six new police constables from the 700 new recruits deployed across Mpumalanga’s 90 police stations in December 2023.
“We work within the resources we have to ensure that we provide excellent professional service to members of the public,” said Mdhluli.
Spokesperson for Thembisile Hani Local Municipality Simphiwe Mokako told GroundUp that according to a municipal study in 2019, there were 17,557 households in Moloto.