Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
High-powered talks on violence
Community Safety MEC, premier find common ground with Cele and national police commissioner
MORE than 2 000 people have died in gang violence in the province since the beginning of November last year.
That’s according to Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz, who met Police Minister Bheki Cele in Parliament this week to discuss a way forward in dealing with gang violence in the Western cape.
Last week, members of the police Anti-Gang Unit were ambushed at an informal settlement in Philippi while searching for a murder suspect. Five officers were wounded seriously and a sixth suffered a knee injury.
Western Cape commissioner for the SA Human Rights Commission, Chris Nissen, said the commission was establishing the terms of reference for an inquiry into the systematic violence in townships in the province and a date for the inquiry’s commencement would soon be announced.
“We need to get to the bottom of it (violence). We need to understand where it stems from and how we can root it out. We need to fully investigate (it) and find out how we can best deal with it,” Nissen said. Officials from government departments, members of civil society and academics would take part in the inquiry.
Fritz’s meeting with Cele also followed the arrest of five people in Nyanga last weekend over serious crimes including rape and murder.
The MEC’s office said Cele and Fritz agreed that immediate attention be given to the task of building safer communities.
Cele said about 1 000 new police recruits out of the 5 000 receiving training at SAPS academies would be deployed in the Western Cape on completion of training and highlighted the need for a “whole of society approach” to reduce crime.
Earlier this week, premier Alan Winde held a meeting with national police commissioner General Khehla Sitole.
Winde said: “In both meetings (his with Sitole and Fritz’s with Cele), the province put forward its vision for safety in the province and we hope that these conversations will be taken seriously.”
He said although policing was a national responsibility, the province would “continue to fight to make the province safer for all of its residents”.
“The province is woefully under-resourced and fighting gang violence, in particular, will require more visible policing and improved crime intelligence,” Winde said.
Additionally, the province had proposed reviving the police reservist programme, which it was willing to fund, and that senior government officials volunteer as commissioners of oaths at police stations to reduce the administrative burden on police.
President Cyril Ramaphosa echoed Winde and Cele’s sentiments at the opening of Parliament on Thursday, saying: “Let us therefore work together to ensure that violent crime is at least halved over the next decade. The first step is to increase police visibility by employing more policewomen and men, and to create a more active role for citizens through effective community policing forums.
“Violent crime is a societal problem that requires a society-wide response.”
Ramaphosa said the fight against drug syndicates would be intensified through the implementation of the National Anti-Gang Strategy and the revised National Drug Master Plan.