Cape Town - A proposed commission of inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha has been put on hold for three weeks, Western Cape premier Helen Zille said on Monday.
“This, however, will be last deadline extension to which I will agree for the SA Police Service,” she said.
For seven months her office had forwarded each complaint in relation to perceived lapses of law enforcement at the Cape Town informal settlement.
Zille said the province's constitutional mandate on policing was confined to oversight.
Last Friday, her office received a letter from the national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega asking for a three-week delay in the probe as Phiyega's office was conducting an investigation on the matter.
If the police were able to resolve the matter, it would save the Western Cape government millions of rand.
“After 20 July, the time for 'consideration', 'deliberation' and 'clarification' will be over...,” Zille said.
Thereafter, she would take appropriate action, within her power to address the state of policing in Khayelitsha.
“We have been patient in our engagement with SAPS but this patience is finite and, in fact, the patience of the residents of Khayelitsha has already run out.” - Sapa