SAPS needs to step up in fighting crime
THE letter “You fiddle while we bleed” (Page 14, August 25) refers.
First, allow me to agree with Mr Adams that no one should have to live in conditions like those he describes.
It is for this very reason that the City has, since 2006, invested heavily in the fight against crime through the introduction of specialised units and technology to act as a force multiplier.
Bear in mind that we’re doing this even though it is not our core function. Ensuring that traffic fines are paid and enforcing road safety legislation and by-laws is actually what the City’s enforcement services are meant to do, yet here we are assisting the SAPS and even taking the lead in many instances with a fraction of their resources.
The bulk of our time is spent on the Cape Flats, and so, too, the bulk of our budget. The entire additional R35 million we received for staff this year is going towards policing in some of the 10 worst crime-affected areas in Cape Town through our Neighbourhood Safety Teams. They will be deployed in Delft in November, and then we will demonstrate to the national government how we can achieve real outcomes and take Delft out of the top 10 permanently. After that we will move on to each of the other police precincts that are among the worst 10 in terms of crime stats.
The real question is, what is the national government doing? The City makes hundreds of arrests every week, but our mandate ends when we book suspects in at the local police station. From there it is up to the SAPS to investigate the case, and the National Prosecuting Authority to convict. Our conviction rates for gang violence are in single-digit territory, and we have to ask why. The specialised SAPS units that focused on gangs and drugs were disbanded several years ago – there have been noises about their reinstatement, but nothing more.
At many of the most crime-affected police stations, the SAPS deployment figures are the lowest. Now there is talk of reducing the police numbers even more. I’ve approached the Western Cape premier to convene an urgent meeting in terms of their oversight of the SAPS to understand the current state of the gang violence crisis and the SAPS deployment figures.
We need to establish exactly where the shortcomings are and how to fix them because the City simply cannot continue carrying a larger and larger share of the policing crisis while the SAPS continues to melt down.