AfriForum Community Safety offered help to Lt Gen Liziwe Ntshinga, Provincial Police Commissioner for the Eastern Cape, after the local media had reported that the Mdantsane Flying Squad did not have a single operational vehicle.
The report also mentioned the unit’s vehicles were unserviceable due to technical faults.
AfriForum contacted the Provincial Commissioner to find out how and to what extent the civil rights organisation can provide help to resolve the situation, and awaits her reply.
“We cannot afford a valuable unit such as this flying squad to be out of service. The Eastern Cape has one of the highest crime figures and showed the third-highest murder figure in 2017,” says Johandré van Zyl, AfriForum’s Regional Safety Coordinator for the Southern Region.
“Although the community has an important role to play in the curbing of crime, the SAPS should, as primary role-player, always be in the position to fulfill their constitutional mandate,” Van Zyl concludes.