Cape Town - Freshly minted Community Safety and Police Oversight MEC Reagen Ivan Allen, 37, was sworn in on Tuesday morning and promised, among other things, to invite the various political parties in the province to give their ideas on how best to tackle violence and crime in the Western Cape.
Allen said: “When people play politics it gets in the way”, and that to avoid this he was hoping to work with all parties and would be inviting them to the table, asking them to bring solid ideas for discussion.
This promise has received a cautious welcome from political leaders who are members of the Standing Committee on Community Safety that Allen chaired until his appointment to the provincial executive council.
EFF provincial chairperson Melikhaya Xego said the EFF was ready to participate in such a platform where they could present their views to the department.
However he said: “The open door policy he [Allen] claims to apply shouldn't mean that he only listens to our views and does the total opposite of the proposed solutions.”
Xego said this was what they had experienced with other MECs.
He said they were not expecting Allen to spend much time learning about the department, because as chairperson of the standing committee he was well acquainted with the most pertinent issues.
“We expect results. Our people are dying on a daily basis in Khayelitsha, Mannenberg, Mfuleni, Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain, Klawer in Matzikama on the West Coast and many other unsafe areas such as Thembalethu in George and Chicago in Drakenstein.”
Provincial ANC Community Safety spokesperson Mesuli Kama said that as the former Standing Committee on Community Safety chairperson, MEC Allen knows exactly what the issues on the ground were and the challenges that need to be addressed urgently.
Kama said Allen was aware of the need to address causative factors of violent crimes in the province and the need for more CCTV cameras in crime hot-spot areas as well as fixing the existing cameras that are not working.
“I hope he will not confuse raising these issues with playing politics. Of course he is a stand-up comedian so he likes joking, but this is not the time for jokes, he must be serious about ridding our streets of drugs and gangs.”
Freedom Front Plus MPL Peter Marais said: “If the DA will not only listen, but learn and be willing to amend its liberalistic outlook when attempting to solve the serious crime situation, then I welcome it.”
He said since he re-entered the provincial legislature in 2019 he has been happy to contribute his ideas and had a willing listener in the former MEC Albert Fritz.
“The result was the training of 3 000 extra municipal police and highway patrols. MEC Allen should continue this bipartisan approach in all earnestness. I know he will, but the jury is still out.”
Good Party MPL Shaun August said: “Good has solutions to decrease crime, one such solution that is based on our social injustice policy pillar is to empower poor communities with resources and skills – arresting people cannot be the only answer for crime fighting.”
He said to build sustainable communities what was needed was to fight crime at the source and this means curbing poverty and inequality, and promoting job creation and service delivery.
Al Jama-ah MPL Galil Brinkhuis said the party was “delighted” with Allen’s swearing in as an MEC.
“It is great that a person of his calibre and his stature is now MEC and we feel he is the right person for the job and we will be working very closely with him and will support him all the way.”
ACDP MPL Ferlon Christians said he thought the idea of involving political parties around the table in discussions on crime reduction was important.
“I have served on the standing committee for seven years and I have made a lot of suggestions on how to reduce crime in the province but I will sit with the new MEC to share my ideas because Community Safety must do more.”