Deputy minister Cassel Mathale said the police need to listen to the plea of communities and act accordingly. 

On Saturday, Mathale led an engagement between, police, residents and various community structures through an imbizo held in Zamdela near Sasolburg.

ALSO READ: Deputy Minister to lead imbizo in Sasolburg

Residents raised several issues of crime troubling their respective communities, while also highlighting the alleged involvement of police officials in crime. Mathale said the police and communities need to find a common ground to work together and end crime across the province.

“Crime happens in communities, crime does not happen in a police station. People who sell drugs, they sell drugs in the township where we stay and they sell drugs to us. We are the ones who use the drugs and we create problems for other community members. 

"People who steal, don’t steal at a police station, they break into houses and steal. These people stay with us and these people who commit these crimes are born in our communities, they are from our families, they are our cousins, they are our brothers, they are our sisters, they are our sons, they are our uncles,” Mathale adds.

Meanwhile, the Free State MEC for Police, Roads and Transport, William Bulwane, warned corrupt police officers.

“We cannot allow crime and criminals to thrive across our townships where we live. I want you to make an oath today residents of Zamdela and Tumahole, that you are going to work with the police to rout out this element in our communities. 

"We don’t want them. The Free State Premier, Sisi Ntombela, and Police Minister, Bheki Cele, launched operation Phethisa Molao, so we want to see law taking its course in this country. This issue that criminals have taken over, it can’t be," Bulwane says.

The gathering follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s imbizo held in Bloemfontein in Mangaung earlier this year

ALSO READ: President Ramaphosa's visit gives Mangaung residents hope

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