Cape Town – The City of Cape Town’s Stabilisation Unit has arrested almost 50 suspects since its launch a month ago and was making an impact in making the City safer, the City said on Tuesday.
The City formed the 90-strong stabilisation unit within its Law Enforcement division to assist the South African Police Service and the City’s own Metro police in security operations, especially in violence-plagued areas.
The Stabilisation Unit, which was launched on July 24, “currently has 32 members deployed in Manenberg to augment ongoing enforcement operations by the SAPS as well as the City’s Metro Police and Law Enforcement Departments,” said JP Smith, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security.
The rest of the members for the 90-strong unit would be deployed in the coming weeks the City said.
Smith said that for the period July 24 to August 20, “the unit arrested 47 suspects and confiscated 30 dangerous weapons as well as 324 units of drugs”.
“They conducted searches of 73 houses, six schools and held 163 vehicle checkpoints,” he said. “Officers issued 261 traffic fines to the value of R176 700.
The unit also succeeded in recovering a stolen vehicle in KwaZulu-Natal and arrested a suspect in Hanover Park who was found in possession of a zip gun.
Smith said the Stabilisation Unit had played a critical role in lightening the work the SAPS and Metro police’s gang and drug task team had had to do.
He added that having additional feet on the ground had enabled the SAPS and the Metro police’s task team to “focus on the gang violence that has plagued Manenberg”.
“The results are clear to see, with a downturn in the number of shooting incidents in the last while,” he said. “This is a great example of inter-agency cooperation on the ground.”
Smith said the City was looking at establishing one or two more stabilisation units to attend to other hotspots in the city.
ANA