The people of Port Elizabeth are fighting "a losing battle" against criminals as the city's ANC councillors wage war on each other, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille said on Monday.
"Crime affects us all, and it is a problem in every city, but here in Port Elizabeth, the ANC is so riddled with political divisions that the council is not taking any decisive action," Zille said in a statement after a visit to the northern areas of Port Elizabeth.
"As ANC councillors fight each other for positions, the people of Port Elizabeth are fighting a losing battle against criminals."
The city should have been putting "everything it could" into establishing a well-trained and dedicated metro police, but the project had to be delayed and deferred because of the ANC's internal battles, Zille said.
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"As a result, this is now the only metro in South Africa without a metro police force."
While in the area Zille visited a crime scene in Bethelsdorp where 14-year-old Mirinda Wessels was gang-raped, murdered and set alight last month.
She also visited Die Gaat, "an area where people live in fear of the Mafia and Mongrel gangs" and Rufane Donkin Primary School which has been vandalised and its pupils victimised by gangsters.
Zille said she had visited Port Elizabeth's formerly prestigious Heritage Trail, where historic buildings and prime sea front property had "fallen into disrepair and ruin at the hands of a council which doesn't seem to care".
She said Democratic Alliance councillors in Port Elizabeth would agitate for a draft problem buildings by-law, which is being introduced in the City of Cape Town to deal with slum-lords and to drive inner-city regeneration. - Sapa
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