Cape Town - Political parties in the Western Cape legislature played the blame-game as they discussed policing matters in Khayelitsha, with the ANC pointing out the lack of CCTV cameras in the township and the DA criticising the national police.
Introducing the debate on the O’ Regan Commission of Inquiry, DA MPL Mireille Wenger said the ANC in the province and senior police management, “in their Pretoria-based ivory towers” are the only ones stubbornly refusing to implement the commission’s recommendations.
Wenger said the ANC is the only party that viewed the commission as a waste of taxpayers’ money.
ANC MPL Pat Lekker accused the City of Cape Town of failing to provide adequate lighting and CCTV cameras in crime hot spot areas within Khayelitsha.
“The city claims that there are 14 cameras in Khayelitsha and only one is not working. However, people through their community structures on the ground, say only 50 percent of cameras are operational.”
Lekker said it was regrettable that the camera - at the place where a young woman, Bongiwe Ninini was recently murdered - was not working, which could ultimately hamper the investigation.
“It must be noted there are no cameras in Harare where vigilantism emanated from and gave rise to Premier Helen Zille’s Commission of Inquiry.
“In Sea Point, there are 14 cameras, and 80 cameras in the Cape Town CBD. In Goodwood, there are 16 CCTV cameras monitored by TMC. In the precinct of the provincial parliament there are not less than 35 cameras, far surpassing the number in communities such as Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain,” she said.
ANC MPL Richard Dyantyi questioned what had changed in Khayelitsha over the past year since the commission’s report was released.
“We all know that about R13 million has been pumped into this process, but the question that we must ask is, has anything changed?”
Citing the Khayelitsha tavern tragedy as an example, Dyantyi said that during the past year, violent crime had increased in the province and in Khayelitsha.
Dyantyi said the conditions of the people of Khayelitsha had not changed despite the millions spent.
“You should be ashamed,” he said pointing at Zille.
Accusing the DA-led government of diverting attention and focusing blame on national government, Dyantyi said Zille had become “a lame duck”.
“She’s only sitting here, she’s on her way out,” he said.
He claimed Khayelitsha had declared that in the first week in September, “they are going to be taking matters into their own hands with the help of the police, because they’ve lost confidence” in Zille and her cabinet.
Zille, in her response, pointed out that the police and the criminal justice system is in the hands of the national police and the only powers that provincial government had was oversight.
“It seems that in every single speech the ANC has made here, they’re suggesting that the DA should take over the criminal justice system, and I agree. I agree that we should be voted into national government so we can fix the police force and ensure that it works,” she said.
She said there was clear evidence of a major crisis in Khayelitsha. “Seventy-eight people were necklaced within the space of a year, and which party cared enough about the people? It was certainly not the ANC that controls the national police, it was the provincial government and the NGOs in Khayelitsha,” she said.
“Our role was to respond in a way that would help the police and not attack them. And all the sensible police officers have recognised that.”
The leader of the official opposition, Marius Fransman, interjected saying: “But you’ve attacked the police.”
Zille hit back: “I’ve not attacked the police and I have never attacked the police. The bottom line is that this commission was established in order to help the police.”
Criticising Police Minister Nathi Nhleko, Zille said he was the only person who could “help change things in Khayelitsha, but he simply refuses to accept the commission’s recommendation” and sign the memorandum of agreement.
“He refuses to answer any of our 21 letters that we’ve written. And the only police officer who rejects this commission is the national police commissioner, Riah Phiyega,” she said.
Cape Argus