Cape Town - The South African Police Ministry has hit back at claims made by the DA in the Western Cape regarding its lack of focus on addressing issues of under-resourcing in the province.
This after the DA announced a 100-day police station oversight campaign that would look into the state of policing precincts across the province, with the objective of sourcing a comprehensive picture of leadership failures and lack of resources under the national government.
DA leader Tertuis Simmers announced the campaign earlier this week, saying that the party was concerned about the recent surge in gun violence in Khayelitsha and the reported drastic decline in detectives at police stations across the province.
He said following the completion of the campaign, the party would be making specific demands to national government, asking for meaningful solutions.
“It feels like the national government under President Ramaphosa and his failing Police Minister Bheki Cele has almost given up on fixing the SAPS. However, we won’t let that happen, and we will hold them accountable,” Simmers said.
Simmers said during the campaign, the DA would look into various policing aspects fingered as contributory factors to declining police services, including the number of operational vehicles, the number of rape kits in stock, shortages of detectives, and the fixed establishment of personnel at each station.
So far, the party has visited Parow, Ravensmead, Elsies River and Bredasdorp in the Hessequa Municipality – all police stations the party claims are severely under-resourced and understaffed.
Simmers said in Bredasdorp, 30% of SAPS vehicles were out of service, 20% of firearms were faulty, and there were 15 vacancies, two of which were for detectives. In Ravensmead, there were 59 vacancies and 12 vacant detective positions.
However, police ministry spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said police have an active integrated resource committee, which is responsible for ensuring its stations are resourced and able to deliver service to communities.
“National police commissioner Fannie Masemola has embarked on visits to provinces to assess and ensure the acquisition of resources. The SAPS currently has 10000 trainees at police academies.
“These 10 000 members will be deployed to stations, units and operational environments to ensure that there are more boots on the ground. The filling of vacancies remains top of our agenda,” Mathe said.
Meanwhile, community activists are not wholly pleased with the idea of a political party empowering itself to conduct oversight on the police.
Community activist Roegschanda Pascoe said: “When is the safety and security of our citizens ever truly considered? I worry that these programmes by political parties are nothing but gimmicks, and by not centring them on the people who are experiencing these issues, you see it.
“There are other aspects of the crime-fighting, but they are getting lost in the process because the focus is being pulled in different directions. If I think about our safety and security structures from national to local government, there are too many bodies doing nothing,” Pascoe said.