The Democratic Alliance (DA) marched against crime, and the lack of police officers to enforce the law and protect the citizens of the Western Cape today. The march started at Manenburg Police Station and made its way to Nyanga Police Station.

The DA is demanding that the ANC call in the army to support the police services in their efforts against crime, following weeks of gang-violence in notorious areas.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane, lead the march and addressed a crowd of DA supporters. In a press statement Maimane said, “Our country is under siege by criminals. Across South Africa we are losing the fight against crime, and we are losing it because the ANC has no incentive to deal with crime.

“Some even receive money from the proceeds of crime – whether from cash-in-transit heists or from the illegal cigarette trade – and they escape prosecution by buying favours. One of the cash heist kingpins who was recently arrested was not only an ANC employee at Luthuli House, but also an elected ANC branch secretary.

“Our crime-stricken communities have been failed by the ANC nation-wide, but we are gathered here in Cape Town today because the people of Phillippi, Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Mannenberg, Nyanga and many other neighbourhoods are suffering particularly badly. Your government has a duty to protect you from crime and criminals. It says so in our Constitution. Your right to freedom and security is one of the very first things mentioned in the Bill of Rights.”

 

The ANC Western Cape provincial secretary, Faiez Jacobs, addressed the demands in a strongly worded statement that Maimane’s call for military intervention was based on “ignorance”.

“There is no evidence, anywhere in the world, that shows that deploying [the] military to fight crime works. In most cases, the longer the military stays, they become part of the problem, with a contest between deaths by gangs and deaths by [the] military,” said Jacobs.

Picture: Twitter

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