The failing ANC is causing suffering in the Western Cape. They are killing policing, they are killing the rail system and they are killing the lights.
That’s why the DA is calling on the ANC to give the Western Cape Government the authority to run the police in the province, the rail system and to let independent power producers supply us with the electricity we need to keep the lights on.
If the ANC national government does the right thing and gives the authority to the Provincial Government to run the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Western Cape, we will build a police station here in Bonteheuwel, to fight crime. Bonteheuwel’s 85 000 residents need their own station. Bishop Lavis which serves this area only has 1 police officer to serve 442 residents. This is not enough to stop the gang violence and not enough to stop the killing. I am writing to the Police Minister to demand a police station for this area.
Right now, mothers in this community are afraid of letting their children play outside because a stray bullet might kill them.
For 2017/18, the Western Cape had the highest number of gang-related murders – 808. The next highest province is the Eastern Cape with 87 gang related murders.
Nyanga still has the highest murder rate in the country with 308 murders last year. This is because the national government refuses to send more police officers and resources to that police station.
We don’t want a ‘Nyanga murder capital’ in this province. That’s why the ANC government must devolve policing to the DA provincial government, so we can fix this deadly problem. We want the Western Cape to be the safest province.
The ANC government has also failed at rail. These days, 73% of trains are late and 43% of trains on the central line are cancelled. We have only half the number of trains that we need. How does the ANC expect our commuters to get to their jobs on time?
Right now, 250 000 passengers have stopped using trains, that is why our taxis, buses and roads are so over-crowded and people are spending three to four hours on the road each day!
Chronic ANC failure is killing policing and it’s killing the rail system in our province. The ANC has been far too busy selling off our country in its state capture project to care about delivering on safety and rail transport.
As the DA government, we are doing our best to help the situation, but we need control of SAPS and the rail system, so we can fix them.
So far, we have set up the only provincial police Ombudsman to monitor policing. We have set up 291 neighbourhood watches with 14 000 vetted members to help fight crime. 109 School Resource Officers were deployed to 53 schools in areas where crime is high.
DA governments have contributed 100 safety officials to the Rail Enforcement Unit to help make our trains safer. So far, 36 people were arrested on charges of assault, possession of drugs and stolen property as well as malicious damage to property.
But we want to do more, we want to save our communities from ANC failures.
Only the DA will fight for you. Only the DA can deliver on safety and on rail transport.
