Ekurhuleni's mothers 'afraid to go to the shops': Khumalo says EMPD vehicles sit unroadworthy while criminals go free

ActionSA’s Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate, Xolani Khumalo, has told a town hall of mayoral candidates that the metro is in a serious crime crisis, and he laid the blame on a metro police force he says has too few officers, not enough uniforms and vehicles that are not roadworthy.

As IOL reported on 19 October, Khumalo made the remarks at an IOL town hall debate involving Ekurhuleni mayoral candidates ahead of the local government elections.

“Ekurhuleni is in a serious crisis,” Khumalo said at the debate. “And Ekurhuleni is in a damning position where we need to be very honest about it. Crime has become our daily reality.”

The consequence he described falls hardest on the people least able to absorb it. Women and children, he said, are increasingly vulnerable, and the absence of visible law enforcement is part of why communities feel unsafe.

“Our mothers and sisters are afraid to go to the shops. Our children cannot play in the streets,” he said.

Khumalo questioned the operational capacity of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department, arguing that there are not enough officers to keep a visible presence across the metro. The weakness, he said, has created an environment in which criminals believe they can act without consequence.

“When you do a crime in Ekurhuleni, you’ll never be caught. When you overspeed in Ekurhuleni, you’ll never be caught. Police visibility is close to nothing,” he said.

He cited his own experience driving along the N12 towards Daveyton on his way to church two nights before the debate, saying he saw only South African Police Service officers on the freeway. His subsequent engagement with the EMPD, he said, raised questions about its shift system and the condition of its operational resources.

“They don’t even have uniforms. The cars that they are driving, they are not even roadworthy,” Khumalo said.

He also alleged that numerous police vehicles were sitting in workshops instead of being deployed to communities.

Khumalo called for more personnel and for technology to strengthen crime prevention, law enforcement and accountability in the metro. He argued that authorities need better information about who moves into and out of Ekurhuleni as part of preventing and responding to crime.

“Everything that happens in Ekurhuleni, we should know. Who comes in Ekurhuleni and out of Ekurhuleni, we should know,” he said.

“So right now, it’s just a free-pass land for each and every criminal that wants to commit a crime,” he said.

The EMPD is the metro’s own police department, separate from the SAPS, and it is funded and run by the Ekurhuleni municipality. Visible patrols, by-law enforcement and traffic policing on the metro’s roads are its core functions, which makes its staffing, vehicles and shift arrangements a direct question for whoever runs the city after the elections.

The claims Khumalo made at the debate are his own account of the metro’s condition. The Enquirer has not independently verified the state of the EMPD fleet, its uniform supply or its staffing levels, and the EMPD has not responded to the specific allegations in this report.

Ekurhuleni voters go to the polls in the local government elections with crime and safety among the issues on the ballot. What Khumalo has put before them is a claim about capacity: that the metro’s own police force cannot see the streets it is meant to police, and that residents are paying for it.