We welcome the extraordinary reduction in murders and crime in Bonteheuwel since the City of Cape Town launched its Neighbourhood Safety Team (NST) in the area.
On 1 July this year 100 law enforcement officers were deployed in Bonteheuwel and since then there has been only one gang-related murder in the area.
Before the deployment, from January 2019 to June 2019, there had been 44 such murders and in 2018 there were 70.
The shocking crime and murder rate in Bonteheuwel before the deployment of the NST is hardly surprising given that Bonteheuwel does not have a police station and that there are only two police officers serving the 85 000 residents of Bonteheuwel.
“Before the 100 officers were deployed there was hardly any police visibility in the area” says ward councillor Angus McKenzie.
“We have repeatedly called on the national government for additional policing and specialised units to protect our people but to no avail. Army deployment in the area has also had no effect as the army has only been in the area on three occasions and for a total of three hours” says McKenzie.
“It is only since the City’s NST deployment that crime and murder rates have started to plummet”.
Since the deployment two months ago a huge quantity of drugs and 6 guns have also been confiscated in the area. More than 100 people have also been arrested for a number of drug and gang-related crimes.
The 100 law enforcement officers are provided and funded by the City of Cape Town under the DA government and they clearly fill the gaping gap left by the failing SAPS.
This intervention exemplifies what a caring government can do, in the face of national government failures.
“Bonteheuwel is truly becoming an example of the real difference that a caring party and a caring city makes in the everyday lives of ordinary people” says McKenzie.
The DA calls on the community of Bontehewel to continue working with the officers to make Bonteheuwel safe.
We call on national government to urgently sort out the mess in the SAPS and to ensure honest and professional policing in all our communities.
The interventions by the City of Cape Town reaffirm the point that policing needs to be localised and competency granted to provinces up to the task. We stand by Western Cape Premier Alan Winde’s campaign to empower provinces to do what National Government is unable to do – use police resources to fight crime effectively