The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the Acting Police Minister, Firoz Cachalia, to urgently convene a meeting with the Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner to craft a credible plan to stop the killings on the Cape Flats.
The Minister must also set out how national government intends to give effect to the urgent need for the devolution of policing powers to capable local and provincial governments like the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government, which are ready to assist SAPS to strengthen the fight against crime.
This call comes after the Minister’s warning to gangs to “stop it” has clearly had no impact. Since Saturday afternoon, Mitchell’s Plain alone has recorded at least twelve murders, while Kalkfontein saw a mass shooting claiming three lives shortly after the fatal stabbing of a matriculant. Beacon Valley and Bishop Lavis also had mass shootings, which resulted in double murders, all of which were gang-related.
Despite the apparent deployment of 200 SAPS officers from other provinces, confusion persists as to how they fit into the existing chaos created by stop-gap measures such as Shanele 2. Crime Intelligence cannot be “imported” overnight. Building reliable networks takes time, and simply displacing SAPS officers and resources from elsewhere is clearly not stemming the bloodshed.