Cape Town - The DA-led city council and Western Cape government might be heading to court in their fight to retain control of the city's metro police, as the Civilian Secretariat for Police moves ahead with plans to merge the municipal policing service with the SAPS.
New laws aimed at absorbing the municipal police into national police structures are cup for public scrutiny and comment from all spheres of government.
MEC for community safety Dan Plato and mayor Patricia de Lille on Monday announced possible legal action to challenge the constitutionality of a White Paper on policing which recommends the creation of a single police service.
They stressed that comments and input from local and provincial government had been largely ignored.
The White Paper advocates a single police service to enhance the functioning of the metro police, streamline command and control and ensure uniform standards.
But the road map towards establishing a single police service has left the city and the provincial government seeing red.
"We believe that this centralised force is a replica of apartheid policing forces. Policing should in fact be more decentralised, and the metro police system should be allowed to operate where it is in working order," De Lille said
She added the constitution specifically provided for a municipal police service. She said the municipal authority would defend that constitutional entitlement.
"Should Minister Nathi Nhleko continue to bulldoze these policy decisions until they become an Act of Parliament, we will go to court to challenge their constitutionality," she added.
According to the mayor, the council cannot allow a "one-size-fits all" crime reduction strategy, as proposed in the White Paper. "Our metro police are far better positioned to respond to crime at a local community level, and their excellent results are evident."
The mayor said the local authority would mobilise public opinion for the impending public participation process and would seek legal opinions regarding the impact on the mandates of the provincial government and city council.
"We will not allow our constitutional mandates to be trampled on. If the amended bill becomes an Act of Parliament by the president (Jacob Zuma), we will see no other choice but to challenge its constitutionality," she said.
Plato, who raised concerns over the issue in March 2015, said the provincial government was of the view that, apart from major problems identified around the integration of the metro police into the SAPS, the White Paper also fell short on the oversight mandate of provincial governments, specialised policing and the role of neighbourhood watches.
"The Western Cape government's comments on the draft White Paper on police reflected our concerns that our constitutional oversight role is not emphasised, and is actually undermined in the policy."
He said the line stating that the province should perform oversight "in conjunction with the Minister of Police" should be removed as it was incorrect.
"As the Western Cape government, we remain opposed to short-sighted policing policy changes which could in practice lead to even worse policing service delivery," he said.
Cape Argus