Statement by the City’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille
City reaffirms commitment to fighting crime with SAPS
Note to editors: the below is an extract from a statement by the City’s
Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille, at her first official meeting with the South
African Police Service Western Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant
General KE Jula, today 7 April 2016.
It is a great pleasure for me to be here today with the newly appointed
Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General
Khombinkosi Jula.
Even though the primary mandate to fight crime belongs to the South African
Police Service (SAPS), the City of Cape Town has a crime prevention strategy
which exists to support their work. We are here today in the spirit of
cooperative governance to reaffirm our commitment to working with the
SAPS to address the scourge of crime across our city.
Crime has a crippling effect on our society. It prevents school children from
getting the education that they are entitled to. Crime prevents young people
from living their dreams and accessing opportunities, free from the pressure
and lure of drugs and gangsters. It has the consequence of keeping us all
locked in our homes to stay away from the danger, because criminals roam
free on our streets. Crime robs us all of freedom, fairness and opportunity.
We are all affected and we all have a role to play in fighting crime. In the
City of Cape Town, we have implemented innovative methods of deploying
our human resources to build a safe city.
Our specialised Gang and Drug Task Team has seen great successes through
its intelligence-driven operations. This unit has been trained in international
best practice. Since November 2014, they have conducted 717 searches of
private dwellings and 737 searches at City rental stock. They have worked
together with our K9 Unit and made 543 drug-related arrests and 362 general
arrests. This unit has also presented 72 gang and drug awareness talks at
schools, men’s clubs, universities and companies.
Last year we launched the Stabilisation Unit, which is a specialised unit that
comprises 90 Expanded Public Works Programme workers. They have
received training in saturation policing and, since December, they have
been deployed to gang-ridden and volatile areas as the need arises. Thus far
they have searched 825 houses, arrested 388 suspects, and confiscated 2 417
units of drugs.
As an investment into protecting the future of our children, we have
employed 36 school resource officers. We can have the best schools and
teachers, but if gangsters, crime and drugs prevent learners from coming to
school, then the opportunities we make available will be in vain. They have
been deployed to 18 schools in areas such as Mitchells Plain, Hanover Park,
Bishop Lavis, Manenberg, Delft and Nyanga.
According to Section 64C(2)(g) of the South African Police Service Act, No.
68 of 1995, an Annual Police Plan must be developed by the executive head
of the municipal police service after consultation with the South African
Police Service and relevant community policing forums (CPFs). We are
currently drawing up the 2016/17 plan for submission to Lieutenant General
Jula by the end of April.
I would like to invite the public to submit their input into our Annual Police
Plan until 23 April 2016. They can do so via e-mail submission to
mayor.mayor@capetown.gov.za. Alternatively, they can submit their ideas in
the suggestion boxes at the following four Metro Police depots: Bonteheuwel,
Central City, Khayelitsha and Philippi.
We value the efforts of residents across the city who have already joined
hands with us by sacrificing their time to protect their communities. This is
done though serving on street committees, CPFs and neighbourhood watch
organisations. This financial year we spent R2,3 million on supporting hundreds
of neighbourhood watches. We provide them with training on communitybased crime prevention methods and we issue them with equipment which
includes bicycles, torches, patrol jackets, reflective bibs and first-aid kits. Over
the next two weeks, we will also be supplying them with 450 two-way radios
as an extra measure of support.
Just this week, I met with an all-women street committee in Lentegeur called
Bay Watch. The members are mothers who have decided that they will no
longer allow gangsters and drugs to steal their children from them. I would
like to commend and thank them and other committees like them who are
doing what they can to fight crime.
We cannot prevent crime alone. This scourge requires of all us – the City of
Cape Town, Western Cape Government, the SAPS and residents – to play a
part. Let us all make use of this opportunity to become crime fighters in our
own right, and make progress possible together.