Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has requested a legal opinion on whether it can declare serious violent crime taking place in parts of the metro a disaster in those areas, the city said on Sunday.
The request was officially signed off by mayor Patricia de Lille last week, mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said in a statement.
“This move comes after the quarterly meeting of the disaster management advisory forum, during which a discussion took place about the crime situation in some parts of the city meeting all the criteria for being declared a disaster. The exact areas will be chosen after the soon-to-be-released official crime statistics are considered,” he said.
A disaster is defined as a progressive or sudden widespread or localised natural or human-caused occurrence which causes or threatens to cause death, injury, or disease; damage to property, infrastructure, or the environment; or disruptions of the life of a community; and is of a magnitude that exceeds the ability of those affected by the disaster to cope with its effects using only their own resources.
The city did not control the criminal justice system as all parts of the system were controlled by national government, Smith said.
“In the context of the ongoing failure of policing at the hands of national government, the legal opinion will seek to treat identified crime hotspots as it would any other disaster areas by making available additional policing and other resources to prevent crime and stabilise such communities.”
The legal opinion would also explore whether the city could claim additional resources from national government in lieu of failure of the national police to secure certain communities, he said.
African News Agency