Pretoria - Gauteng's top cops will have to deal with incessant ringing of their cellphones from Monday after they were asked by National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele to give out their cellphone numbers to the people of Soshanguve.
Cele led the way and was the first to call out his cellphone number to the thousands of people who gathered for an imbizo at which Cele and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa listened to and addressed the concerns of the Soshanguve community.
Cele also lined up Gauteng's top brass, which included Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Mzwandile Petros and his deputies, on stage and one by one, they made their cellphone numbers public to the crowd that waited with pen and paper ready.
The move came after the some community complained to Mthethwa about local police, saying they were ineffective in dealing with the community's problems.
Other complaints raised by those at the imbizo included the availability of drugs, police's reluctance to deal with drug dealers, poor response time by police and the lack of resources such as police cars.
Mthethwa was particularly concerned about the drug situation in Soshanguve, saying police management would arrange a meeting with schools to discuss the problem.
"If our kids are targeted by the drug lords, then our entire future are ruined...The drug lords are the people we want because they are destroying our future and our nation," he said.
Mthethwa reminded the community that it was their duty to report drug dealers to police so that they could be dealt with effectively.
He also called on all members of the community to become involved in the fight against crime, saying every community member should become part of the community policing forum.
"Communities must be at the forefront in our efforts to reclaim the streets. In a community of 10 000 people, you can't have just 10 people patrolling the streets. All 10 000 should be fighting crime - that will guarantee our victory," the minister added.
Cele urged the community not to protect criminals but to do their bit by identifying and reporting known criminals.
"The top criminals come from Pretoria. They come from your communities, from your houses, you know them. You make these criminals your idols," he said.
While many people complained that there not enough police officers in the country, Cele said it was not the numbers that were the problem.
"Do we need to fix the figures or the management of the police officers? It looks like we need to take a look at how we manage all the police officers we have," he noted.
