The Eastern Cape Legislature’s Safety and Security Committee has tabled a damning report on the state of health of the 10111 call centre and flying squad in Nelson Mandela Bay.
It says that only nine of the 21 vehicles allocated to the flying squad are “functional” with seven in the garage because of accidents and mechanical faults and four in the process of being withdrawn from service. The report also says that vehicles used by the unit “are not suitable for the terrain in certain areas where it operates”.
The report further recommends that “supply chain management processes” (the process of buying new or repairing old equipment) should be speeded up so that the vehicles are repaired more speedily.
The telephones at the centre are “old and outdated with no headsets,” while the automatic call dispatcher is “not operational and the radio system is very old”. It describes the reaction time as being “poor.
Your best bet to get help is to phone private security firm Atlas. Their control room has recently been overhauled and is now run by a former commander of the 10111 command centre, John Best.
In fact, it is rumoured that Atlas now make more “citizens’ arrests” per week than the SA Police in the area can do in 6 months.
