DA calls for greater accountability from SAPS

The DA has called for stricter community safety oversight in Gauteng after it came to light that only one in 20 farm attacks that occurred in the province over the past eight months had resulted in the arrest of perpetrators.

To achieve this, the party introduced the Community Safety Oversight Bill in the Gauteng Legislature.

According to the DA, the bill supported the establishment of partnerships with the business community and other role players, and the accreditation and support of neighbourhood watches to increase co-operation and the development of safety initiatives.

Bennie van Zyl, general manager of TAU SA, commended the DA for its efforts, but said his organisation was concerned about cadre deployment within the South African Police Service (SAPS).

“We should stop managing failures and start cleaning out the SAPS by getting rid of criminals in [its ranks],” he said. TAU SA would voice its concern about the SAPS in Parliament in February. “Criminality must be rooted out at the highest level,” Van Zyl said.

Adrian Roos, head of the DA Gauteng Rural Safety Court Watching Briefs Unit, said: “It is clear the [SAPS is] incapable or unwilling to implement rural safety plans in our province.” He added that the final straw was the recent murder of an elderly couple in the Bapsfontein district.

Roos stressed that the SAPS was not doing enough to track down the perpetrators of farm murders. In response to a formal request for a list of farm murders that had taken place in Gauteng since June 2020, the SAPS was only able to provide an incomplete list, and appeared to be unaware of four murders that had taken place in June, August and September 2021, he added.

“The DA will not allow these murders to fade into history unsolved,” Roos said.

“The SAPS in Gauteng has shown [it wasn’t] even able to adequately track and report on farm attacks, and it is clear that citizens need to be empowered to hold the SAPS to account where they fail.” – Susan Marais