RURAL MOBILE COMMUNITY SERVICE CENTRE

The Rural Mobile Community Service Centre was established in 2001 in Thohoyandou. Limpopo Province has a population of 5 million, 89% of whom live in rural areas. Many of these areas are remote and inaccessible and maintaining law and order in them is difficult. The SAPS (Provincial) together with the Local Government, the MEC for Safety and Security and the Dept of Home Affairs (Prov) established what could best be described as a police station of wheels. The aim is to reduce crime, create a sense of security and re-establish confidence between the community and the police.

Innovation 

This is a response to a situation where geographical conditions are not conducive to conventional policing methods. The police visit 5 villages with a total population of around 9000 people on pre-arranged dates.  They appear to make at least one visit per month. Once there they offer visible policing, carry out crime prevention, victim empowerment, open case dockets and when possible, arrest suspects. They use two vehicles – one of which has a holding cell for suspects.
The police also inform the community on how to approach safety and security issues.

Effectiveness

They have dealt with a number of illegal activities. Tribal leaders in neighbouring villages view this project favourably and would like to be included in the project.

Poverty Impact

Fourteen vehicles have been built to date at a cost of R620 000.  The money was procured through sponsorships. The project resulted in job creation as small black businesses were contracted to complete the vehicles which, servicing hundreds of thousands of people, reach 50 villages per month. To access policing services before this initiative took an entire day and twenty rand for the people in a community with very high unemployment.

Sustainability

The project has been a success for two years.  The vehicles were procured from the SAP scrap-yard. The demolished vehicles were repaired at a cost of R50 000 per vehicle.  Provision has been made from the SAPS budget to pay for maintenance and all associated costs.  The last amount to be received from DFID was R500 000 to purchase ten vehicles.

Replication 

Many provinces have shown an interest in this project.  It is cheap, cost effective and most of all it improves service delivery to the most marginalised population in the rural areas where the services are most needed.  Any province can learn from this experience and implement this kind of scheme.  The project was started for police services only.  A next phase makes provision for Health, Welfare and Home Affairs to form an integrated service.

Partnerships

•    Dept of Public Service and Administration (National)
•    SAPS – Limpopo Prov
•    Dept of Home Affairs (Prov)
•    MEC of Safety and Liaison, Limpopo Prov