An agreement between the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town has been reached with the SAPS to ‘strengthen security’ in Cape Town, Cape {town} Etc reports.
This agreement does not involve the ‘devolution of police powers’, but authorities have stated that security would become enhanced and support that would increase for the metro’s police services.
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Yesterday, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu fronted an engagement before an agreement was ‘rubberstamped’ by the police, City and provincial government.
After meeting with the City, Mchunu stated that devolving policing powers was ‘not the only way to deal with crime in South Africa’.
‘We have come up with this agreement for all three of us. For us, this is the best model. This is the beginning of any other discussion we can have in future on any other matter,’ said Mchunu.
He said that due to budget cuts, they could not get more police to help, as reported by News24.
‘We cannot increase the number of police on the ground because of budget constraints. The City of Cape Town has 600 uniform [sic] police, and they will augment with our members,’ said Mchunu.
‘This is what people want to see. On the ground, people want safety. They want to see safety and see that the government is caring,’ Mchunu added.
The agreement came amid ‘continued gang violence’ on the Cape Flats.
The DA has lobbied the national government to ‘hand over policing powers’ to the WCG, which it stated the Constitution made provision for.
According to the provincial government, there was a ‘firm basis’ for the devolution of policing to provinces, but its calls were ignored.
JP Smith, Mayco member for safety and security, said they had requested more investigative and crime intelligence powers from the national police.
‘We are around 8 600 detectives short. Our detectives have caseloads of over 300 dockets. Realistically, they can only handle 25, and that’s justice denied to a lot of victims,’ said Smith.
‘The City has 40 investigative officials, and we are willing to share those resources. We can do more with our resources […] This agreement does not address the devolution of powers. It says that we will start talking about legislative amendments, which is encouraging,’ Smith added.
Anroux Marais, Community Safety MEC, claimed that the relationship between the different spheres of government regarding crimefighting in the Western Cape was ‘confrontational’ instead of cooperative.
‘Our people suffer at the hands of extortionists – be they small-scale criminals who rob the lady trying desperately to make ends meet by selling vegetables on the busy pavement, be they crooks who demand protection money from bars and nightclubs or be they the self-styled construction mafia forcing the life from the very sinews and fibre of our economy on a macro scale,’ said Marais.
‘Our people suffer at the hands of murderers, gangsters, robbers, rapists, hijackers and every other type of criminal. This process must lead to a safer Western Cape, or it is not worth the effort,’ Marais added.
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Picture: Theo Jeptha / Die Burger / Gallo Images
