March 5, 2003
By Bongani Majola
POLICING a township with an estimated community of 850 000 people in area covering only about 10 square kilometres, previously notorious for internecine political violence and a legendary reputation for crime, is the task of the new Alexandra Police Station.
For many years, the Alexandra community was served by a police station in Wynberg, on the outskirts of the township. The new police station is situated in 15th Avenue, right in front of the busy taxi rank and behind the Alexandra Stadium.
With its bright pillars and a glass wall in front of the reception and service centre (charge office) area, the 5-block 2-storey police building stands out so clearly among township houses that one can spot it from a kilometre away. And policemen and women are more visible than before, effectively reducing chances of anyone committing crime in the vicinity.
On any given day, there are 290 police personnel at the station, who then spread themselves among normal policing duties that include patrols, detective work, random and routine searches, manning road blocks and embarking on general crime prevention operations.
The police presence has not gone unnoticed by the community. Lebo Mohapi, who lives in 12th Avenue, says she can now walk down the street and be able to answer her cell phone when it rings, a privilege that she has hitherto not enjoyed in fear of known cell phone snatchers.
"Sometimes they don't even snatch your cell phone," she says, "they just ask you to hand it over after your call. And they target mostly girls. But with the police now very nearby, they think three times about doing it. You can see they want to take it but they can't."
"Ja, the township is full of police now," says shop owner Ian Matlenane in the usual township tsotsi-taal, "and this is good for business because when there are no police people are afraid to carry lots of cash with them. And we need cash," he adds with a smile.
Esther Maake says the new police station has saved her the trip of having to board a taxi for R2,30 a single trip just to report cases of theft, which she occasionally does as she operates a hair dressing salon, as well as a day care centre in her home, that falls prey to petty criminals.
The new police station is right next to the Alex taxi rank
However, the community hardly speaks in one voice. "We are finished," says taxi driver Boy Ngubane, "Alexandra is small and you can't have roadblocks every day because you are killing local taxi operators. How many times are you going to stop me in day because I drive up and down this road more than a hundred times. So you are delaying me!" Ngubane bellows as though he's addressing the police commissioner himself.
Another man, who refuses to give his name, agrees with Ngubane: "Police must not arrest people for drinking outside their homes, in their pavements. This is not Sandton, there is no public drinking here. Where do they want us to go?"
Members of the community may disagree, but there is a clear and constant police presence in Alexandra.
South African Police Services (SAPS) Superintendent Benny Moodley, who heads the station's media liaison department, says levels of crime have significantly dropped since the station moved into the throes of the township in January this year.
"We have moved into a central place from our old premises on the edge of the township in Wynberg," says Moodley, "we are now easily accessible and the community has been very cooperative. We feel part of the community now," says Moodley.
Architects of the new police station explain that the complex is characterised by a dark blue wall that runs the length of the building and separates it from houses and other structures in the area.
The glass wall in front of the service centre, previously known as the charge office, like the whole architectural design, is intended to invite the Alexandra public to the "new police station of the new dispensation intended to serve the community", according Marcus Holmes of Fassler Kamstra and Holmes Architects.
Part of the brief from the Department of Public Works, was that the architects should to explore "a new spirit of openness" in the design of the new police station.
Indeed, inside the building there is a huge special hall intended for the use of, among other things, the Community Policing Forum, as well as for the identity parade of suspects.
Holmes says they chose blue, yellow and white colours for the station so that it stands out "and even those who cannot read or write, can see and identify the building as belonging to the police".
