Cape Town – The plan to upgrade the Muizenberg police station to the tune of R100 million has been put on hold, d eputy Police Minister Bongani Mkongi said on Sunday.

Instead, the money would be spent on a new police station for Makhaza, Khayelitsha.

The news that the heritage building police station in the seaside suburb of Muizenberg, Cape Town, would be upgraded was met with anger by many who called into question the amount being spent, while the Cape Flats communities of Nyanga and Khayelitsha were overlooked.

The suburb of Nyanga has the highest murder rate in the country.

Mkongi said the U-turn was the result of reports in the Cape Argus, which stated that the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry had heard in 2014 that budget allowances had been made for a second police station in the area to address policing inefficiencies. However, it later emerged that the department of Public Works had received no such request.