Key input sought on anti-gang units

Police portfolio committee set to evaluate their strategy; deal with Cele-McBride spat over Ipid job

THE newly re-established SAPS antigang unit will come under scrutiny when Parliament’s police portfolio committee holds a meeting to evaluate its strategy tomorrow.

The meeting is being held almost three months after a similar meeting took place to look at the state of community policing in high-crime areas affected by gun violence.

The anti-gang unit was launched by Police Minister Bheki Cele and President Cyril Ramaphosa in Cape Town in November amid pressure on the the government to deploy specially trained officers to tackle gangs.

Committee chairperson Francois Beukman said yesterday the police’s ability to deal with organised crime, and specifically organised gangs, was key to ensure that the National Development Plan’s recommendations about the re-establishment of the specialised unit was fully implemented.

Beukman said the committee has invited civil society groups and community leaders from Gauteng, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Free State.

“The input of community members, community leaders, trade unions and religious leaders is key to deal with gang criminality. We are looking forward to listening to their contributions,” Beukman said. The committee was very concerned about reports that more than 185 people have been killed in gang-related violence on the Cape Flats since March 2018, he said.

“The number of young children maimed and killed in crossfire of gangs is totally unacceptable. All role-players ranging from parents, schools, business, religious groupings and the different levels of government should work shoulder to shoulder to address the root causes.”

The availability of illegal firearms in gang-infested communities was also a major concern and needed non-stop intervention by Crime Intelligence and the specialised unit of the Directorate of Priority Commercial Crimes dealing with illegal firearms, he said.

Another major concern was support given to community policing forums in gang-infested and hotspots.

Last month, a CPF member was shot in Mitchell’s Plain and another was shot in a targeted business robbery on February 2.

“The committee will seek assurances from the national police management and the Civilian Secretariat on Police to ensure that community policing forums in hot spot areas receive the necessary support.”

Tomorrow’s meeting takes place on the same day Cele and Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) boss Robert McBride battle it out in court over the expiry of the latter’s employment contract on February 28.

Beukman confirmed that Speaker Baleka Mbete has referred the decision on McBride’s employment to the portfolio committee.

At tomorrow’s meeting, the committee would consider a process on how to deal with the referral and timeframe for processing it.

McBride launched an urgent application in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to have Cele’s decision not to renew his employment declared unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid. “The decision whether to renew the appointment is not one that the minister is empowered to take.

“The decision must be taken by the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on police,” McBride argued.

But Cele said McBride’s argument was about Ipid’s independence and insulating its director from political pressure. “The Act guarantees the Ipid director five years in office. Once those five years are up, the director’s term terminates as a matter of law.”

Cele also said: “The minister’s role is narrow: when an incumbent director’s five-year term nears its end, the minister makes a preliminary decision to renew or not to renew incumbent terms,” adding that his decision was subject to confirmation or rejection by the portfolio committee.

Reports surfaced yesterday that Corruption Watch and The Helen Suzman Foundation have applied to be admitted as friends of the court