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SAPS members at Gqeberha's Chatty Police Station, reportedly lock themselves inside at night during load shedding as the generator is broken and they are fearful of being attacked.
This claim was made by DA MP, Andrew Whitfield, during Wednesday's debate on the State of the Nation Address.
Whitfield, the party's spokesperson on the police and Eastern Cape provincial chairperson, said gang violence in Nelson Mandela Bay's Northern Areas, said more than 20 lives since the beginning of the year.
He said the Chatty Police Station in the Northern Areas remains understaffed and under-resourced.
"In fact, police officers at this station lock themselves inside at night during load shedding because their generator is broken, and they fear being attacked like the five officers who were killed in the Ngcobo police massacre."
Whitfield said recent mass killings in the Eastern Cape further expose your broken promises.
He highlighted two mass killings in rural Bityi outside Mthatha in as many months have left the community shocked and shaken.
"In Kwazakhele in Nelson Mandela Bay there have been two mass killings in just two weeks leaving 12 people dead and many more injured," he said.
"At every SONA your broken promises on fighting crime echo across the country and into the homes and broken hearts of South Africans living in fear," Whitfield said.
SAPS Eastern Cape was approached for comment on Whitfield's claim about the Chatty police station but Algoa FM News was told that "SAPS does not respond to remarks made by politicians at SONA."
