Provincial Civilian Secretariat as well as the station management, on an oversight visit at Boeshoek Police Station, about 50 km’s from Tosca.

The Portfolio Committee on Community Safety and Transport Management, Public Works and Roads met with the SAPS Dr Ruth District Management, Provincial Civilian Secretariat as well as the station management, on an oversight visit at Boeshoek Police Station, about 50 km’s from Tosca. The visit forms part of the Oversight Week that the North West Provincial Legislature is embarking on in the Dr Ruth Segomotso Mompati from the 29 August to the 01 September 2023.

The Committee delegation led by Acting Chairperson, Hon. Freddy Sonakile, engaged on the operations, successes and challenges experienced by the farm station.

Amongst matters raised with the station was the functionality of the CPF which appeared to be a problem based on the report from the Civilian Secretariat. The District and Station SAPS management indicated that all CPF challenges had been dealt with and that a new committee had been elected.

The Committee was more concerned by the dilapidated state of the police barracks at the station. Management indicated that SAPS had engaged Public Works numerous times and were not assisted to deal with the maintenance of those buildings. The problem was so bad that other officers had to find accommodation at Tosca and travel to the station.

The police station building is also in a bad state as they are housed in an old border post that is no longer functioning. The District SAPS management that a few years ago engagements had started to move the station to Tosca where the larger population that they service resides. The municipality Kagisano Molopo which has its old municipal buildings at Tosca had agreed to handover those buildings to the stations, but those talks collapsed mid way.

Hon. Sonakile requested the management to provide all communique to Public Works on maintanance requests made that were ignored. He further lambasted public works for failing on its mandate of maintain government buildings. “The Committee will write to both the MEC and Minister responsible, those who are sleeping on the job must be held accountable”.

Hon. Sonakile also indicated that they will engage with the Coghsta Committee to see if they can’t revive negotiations between Kagisano Molopo Municipality and SAPS on moving the station to where it will be closer to the people it serve. “It serves no purpose if the building is in this bad state and not maintained, yet the majority of the residents are about 50km’s from the station, where there is an unutilized government building which can bring the services of the station closer to the residents”.

Next on the list was the Department of Public Works, reporting on the Madinonyane and Vragas road leading to Northern Cape. Before the engagements, Committee lambasted the Department for failing to at least blade the road from Tosca to the Boeshoek station which is ina bad state. The Committee requested that this be prioritized to make access to the station much easy.

On the Madinonyane to Vragas road, the Committee noted work that had been done and noted progress, as well as the extension that had been requested by the contractor to finish the road which is now at 75% completion.

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