Please find an attached soundbite by Andrew Whitfield MP
On Thursday this week Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, swooped in on Nelson Mandela Bay with a ‘battalion’ of heavily armed police officers with the express intention to address the recent outbreak of violence in Walmer Township and Korsten.
Earlier this week in Walmer Township 9 people were murdered and 5 injured in a killing spree which took place over 48 hours, while in Korsten violence broke out allegedly involving the taxi industry and business owners in the area. Both incidents are extremely serious and require an equally swift and strong response from the South African Police Service (SAPS).
The DA supports efforts to restore calm and arrest those responsible for the violence, destruction of property and murders but the SAPS must not be used by the Minister for campaigning purposes by only targeting certain areas while ignoring others.
Instead of visiting Walmer Township, where the SAPS satellite police station has been closed since 2017 leading to an increase in violent crime, Minister Cele instead targeted many law abiding business owners through what appears to have been an unlawful search and seizure operation yielding little to no result. Earlier this year the Nelson Mandela Bay economy was held to ransom by protesting taxis and who shut the city down for almost a week but Minister Cele was nowhere to be seen.
On Wednesday this week Executive Mayor Nqaba Bhanga went to Walmer Township to address the issue of the killings and assess the status of the SAPS satellite police station. The DA has been campaigning since 2017 to have this satellite police station reopened and on Thursday the Mayor wrote to Minister Cele requesting, yet again, that the station be reopened.
Following the Mayor’s intervention the Minister agreed to visit Walmer Township during his visit to Nelson Mandela Bay but instead targeted Korsten while snubbing the terrified community of Walmer Township who are being terrorised by a criminal syndicate which appears to kill with impunity.
Minister Cele’s visit to Nelson Mandela Bay was blatant electioneering on a highly sensitive and volatile issue while he ignored SAPS’ blatant failure over many years to keep other communities, such as Walmer Township, safe.
It costs the SAPS more than R8 million to protect one VIP when that money could be given to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to employ 22 more metro police officers or roll out four more sites with our gun shot detection technology known as ‘Shotspotter’. This technology is already in use in parts of Nelson Mandela Bay’s Northern Areas where it has led to a 90% reduction in gun shots. The Executive Mayor, Nqaba Bhanga, yesterday announced that Walmer Township has been prioritised for the next phase of our Shotspotter rollout.
The DA reiterates our call for SAPS to move swiftly and equally to bring those responsible for violent crime to book. The Minister must now show that he is serious about crime in all communities by prioritising the reopening of the Walmer Township satellite police station and ensuring that SAPS acts decisively to root out the criminal syndicate which is holding that community ransom.
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