In my capacity as Western Cape MEC of Community Safety, and as authorised by the Western Cape Cabinet, I have written to the national Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, to notify him that the Western Cape Government is declaring a formal intergovernmental dispute with the Police Minister.
It is now six months since the Western Cape Government first wrote to the Minister with a list of urgent Policing Needs and Priorities for the province, which the Minister has ignored. He has failed to respond to our urgent requests, even after a follow-up letter in December, and hand delivering the letter to President Ramaphosa in person in Parliament in February. The Minister of Police is obliged by the Constitution to consult and take account of the specific needs of our province when determining policy. By ignoring these needs and priorities, Minister Cele is violating the Constitution.
Our province urgently needs more police officers. Western Cape police is dramatically under resourced compared to other provinces: while one officer must protect 375 people on average nationally, in the Western Cape, the ratio is 1:509. It makes me angry that the national ANC government gives our province fewer resources to fight crime than other provinces. The Western Cape needs urgent additional personnel to enable the Western Cape Provincial Commissioner to take steps to address gang violence and the appalling murder rate, as well as to protect learners and schools, public transport and state infrastructure such as ambulances.
The Western Cape Provincial Police Ombudman’s investigation into South African Police Service (SAPS) reservists concluded that “there has been a significant decrease in the number of active police reservists between 2008 and 2018” and that “[t]he decrease in the total number of reservists available over weekends, is directly impacting on the efficiency of the SAPS in the Western Cape to reduce the levels of reporting crime”. As a result of this, and to assist SAPS, we offered to give SAPS R5 million to pay for police reservists to be deployed in the province, to act as a force multiplier and reduce crime.
The Western Cape further offered provincial government volunteers to take on administrative duties at SAPS stations, such as Commissioners of Oaths, so that more police officers are freed up to fight crime on patrol.
But the Minister has ignored us, and has not responded to our province’s urgent policing needs and priorities and did not respond to these offers.
The Western Cape Government is left with no choice other than to declare formally that the Minister has:
- Failed or refused to respond to the communication of the policing needs and priorities of this province as communicated to him in October 2018;
- Failed or refused to address the policing needs and priorities of this province in determining National Policing Policy; and
- Failed to respond to the proactive offers of assistance and funding made by the Western Cape Government.
Minister Cele is now obliged by Section 41 of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act 13 of 2005 to meet urgently with the Western Cape Government to respond to and address these failures.
Crime is a responsibility of the national government and the SAPS is controlled from the government right here in Pretoria. When we ask for more police officers, the ANC government looks away, and when we ask for the army to be sent in to defeat gangs, the ANC government says no. We are sick of the national government refusing to hear our cry for help.
This is why I will fight for policing to be controlled by the province and not from Pretoria and Luthuli House. The DA will always put the welfare of our people first, and will never compromise their safety for political gain. While the national government, which is mandated by the Constitution to protect all South Africans, continues to fail in its duty to keep us safe, the Western Cape Government is not standing idly by. We are fighting for better policing, and we have established extensive programmes to bolster neighbourhood watches and Community Police Forums in partnership with volunteers to help increase safety in our communities.
I urge all voters to support the DA at the polls on 8 May as the only party with a plan, and the only party that cares about the safety of the residents of the Western Cape