GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Former Eden Cluster commander, Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile, was appointed as the new Western Cape police commissioner on Thursday 1 July.
Patekile, who is not new to the Western Cape, served as the Eden Cluster commander in George from 2013 to 2015 before the current commander, Maj-Gen Oswald Reddy, took over the reins.
Patekile comes from humble beginnings, growing up in a rural village near Port St Johns in the OR Tambo District in the Eastern Cape.
He served at various police stations and places in the Eastern Cape and left as the cluster commander of Chungwa in the now Amathole District before becoming the Eden cluster commander in 2013. He was later appointed by the former national commissioner, General Riah Phiyega, to replace Lt-Gen Arno Lamoer as the acting provincial commissioner in the Western Cape in 2015.
Briefing the media on Friday 2 July, he said addressing the problem of understaffing in the province's police stations would be key on his agenda.
"I am not taking this lightly; it is an enormous task ahead of us. I want to ensure that there is an enticing and collaborative approach to the issues of crime and safety in the province and that they become a priority," he said.
The Minister of Community Safety, Albert Fritz, welcomed Patekile's appointment.
"Over the last few months while Patekile was acting, we managed to develop a good working relationship based on openness and transparency. We have been mutually supportive of each other in our respective roles. We are satisfied that the recruitment process duly complied with all the relevant norms and standards, and that it was therefore fair and transparent. We welcome the stability in the provincial Saps that comes with the appointment of a provincial commissioner, and will continue to work together to make the Western Cape a safer province for all its citizens," Fritz said.
Patekile visited George at the end of June when he deployed various police units throughout the Southern Cape during the launch of Operation Vhuthu Hawe. These units clamped down on drug outlets in George and Oudtshoorn.
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