Cable theft cripples three police stations

At least three Pietermaritzburg police stations have been left in limbo since Wednesday after vagrants stripped the main power box at Alexandra Road Police Station of all its cables, leaving officers without electricity, telephone lines, email access and radio communication with patrol vehicles. Prestbury and Townhill police stations operate off the same server line linked to the main power box at Alexandra Road Police Station, meaning both stations were also left without email, telephones and radio communication. “Basically the building has been hijacked.

The police station is dysfunctional and nobody cares. The only way for us to communicate with officers on patrol is by using our personal cellphones to call them,” said one officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said Alexandra Road Police Station has at least 150 officers operating there daily, as it houses the Detective Branch, the Training Department, the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, Employee Health and Wellness, and patrol officers.

The officer explained that members of the public can still go to the station for assistance; however, officers can only take statements and capture entries manually. A community member enquiring about a police clearance certificate was told that, if the matter was urgent, they should go to Pietermaritzburg Central Police Station. “Our cables were ripped out by [vagrants], so you can come back on Friday and I will assist, or, if the matter is urgent, you can try another station,” the officer told the resident while The Witness waited to be served.

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WhenThe Witnessvisited, the station did not initially appear visibly affected, but closer inspection showed the fans, desktop computers and lights were switched off. An officer at Townhill Police Station said the only communication the station had received about the outage was confirmation that its landlines were down. “We did not think that was unusual as, unfortunately, this happens quite often,” he said.

He said Townhill’s phone lines depend on Alexandra Road Police Station, where the switchboard is based. “This has been going on for years. We had a meeting with senior management, but it fell on deaf ears. The [vagrants] have stolen everything containing copper from Alex.

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