GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — Concerns have been raised recently about the efficacy of the 10111 emergency number for the police, with several reports of residents dialling this number and nobody answering.
One local resident, who does not wish to be named, cited three separate occasions recently when she had cause to phone the police. In one instance, a man was about to abuse his partner physically just outside the resident’s house so she tried to call the police, but to no avail.
The second incident occurred during the Strawdogs rally display when a man collapsed on the corner of Bourke and Caledon Streets. Fearing that the man was in danger of being run over, the lady tried to contact the police on 10111, but once again, the phone just rang. Fortunately, she was able to get through to the ambulance services, who responded quickly.
The most recent incident occurred last week when a teaching room behind Isibane Primary School was broken into. In the morning the manager walked to the police station to report it and was told that he had to dial 10111 as they need the report to be recorded. When they tried the 10111 number, once again it rang, unanswered.
The Graaff-Reinet Advertiser spoke to Col Siyaya, Vispol Commander of Graaff-Reinet SAPS, in this regard, and she expressed her concern and promised to investigate the matter.
In connection with the last incident where the manager was told he could not open a case at the station but had to phone it in, she stated that this is not necessary, and the man should have been attended to by the member on duty.
If any other member of the public has experienced this problem (or indeed any other service-delivery issue with SAPS), they are asked to contact Col Siyaya on 082 413 4458 or 049 807 1106 and she will investigate the matter.
She further explained that the 10111 number is extremely busy, especially on weekends. This number goes through to the control room, where there is only one telephone and one member on duty: thus, if the member is already dealing with a complaint on the phone, he or she is unable to answer another call.
This is clearly not satisfactory, and an obvious solution would seem to be to have more lines and more members available. In the meantime, it was suggested that if a caller is unable to get through to 10111 in an emergency, then a call can be placed to 049 807 1100.
If that number cannot be answered, the call will be redirected to the charge office and attended to from there. However, calls to this number are not free, as is the case with 10111 calls.
The police also appealed to members of the community not to use the 10111 number for non-emergency queries, as these calls tie up the number and prevent genuine emergency calls coming through.
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