R110m cash injection for safety and security

THE City’s safety and security directorate has received a handsome financial injection.

It has been allocated just over R110 million of additional money via the approved City budget for 2018/19. This cash will allow for provision of critically needed equipment and additional staff in the new financial year.

“We will spend R45m on the appointment of additional staff in the metro police and traffic services departments. Thanks to our partnerships, like the rent-a-cop initiative, the various City improvement districts will provide funding to the tune of R4.1m for additional, dedicated law enforcement staff,” mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said.

Smith said the cash would be used for additional fire safety staff to ensure that fires were prevented before they started. Additional resources would be used for the Safety and Security Investigations Unit, additional staff to support and train neighbourhood watches, and facility protection officers to ensure that libraries, clinics, halls, sports facilities and early childhood development centres were safeguarded from vandalism and theft, he said.

“The increase in staff numbers is part of ongoing efforts to expand the City’s policing and emergency services resources to compensate for the under-resourcing of the SA Police Service in Cape Town, where the deployment figures are well below the national average,” Smith said.

Following approval of the budget for 2018/19 at the end of May, Smith said this put their plans in place to create a more visible presence in communities.

“The City has been under increasing pressure to fill policing gaps that, technically, are not our mandate. We have come to learn that communities plagued by crime simply want service delivery,” Smith said.