Cape Town - The tussle between the City of Cape Town and national police over resources to tackle gang violence has taken a new turn with the city now being prepared to go to court to have gang hot spots declared disaster zones.
This comes as two of the Western Cape’s top gang-busting police officers are headed to the Labour Court over their redeployment, and the Khayelitsha-based Social Justice Coalition awaits a court date to try force the police ministry to allocate more resources to Cape Town’s disadvantaged areas.
The crime situation in the province became clear on Friday when the official police crime statistics were released in Parliament.
During a presentation on the statistics, 28s gang stronghold Bishop Lavis was singled out. It emerged that more than three-quarters (76 percent) of the 122 attempted murders reported there over a year were linked to gang violence.
Seven of the country’s top 10 murder hot spots were in the Western Cape. These areas - Nyanga, Harare, Delft, Lwandle, Kraaifontein, Gugulethu and Khayelitsha - were identified as among the areas with the worst police-to-population ratios.
“We could go to court to compel SAPS to deploy adequate police officers in accordance with their own norms and standards policies,” safety and security mayoral committee member JP Smith said.
If authorities declare an area a disaster, the national government could release resources to assist.
“The city previously obtained legal opinion on whether this (declaring of disaster zones) was possible in order to compel more police deployment in these areas as the SAPS numbers in the worst crime hot spots is woefully inadequate,” Smith said.
“The legal opinion said that we could not, in terms of the law, declare these hot spots disaster areas,” he said.
In March the Social Justice Coalition and Equal Education, launched an application in the Western Cape High Court to try force the police ministry to allocate more resources in poorer areas.
“The Western Cape Provincial Government is currently monitoring (this) court action and might become involved in support thereof to ensure that adequate police numbers are deployed city-wide,” Smith said.
Social Justice Coalition general secretary Phumeza Mlungwana said its senior legal counsel had met with the police’s senior counsel.
A date was yet to be set for the matter to proceed in court.
On Saturday Police Minister Nathi Nhleko’s spokesperson, Musa Zondi, said he was not ready to comment because he first wanted to approach legal authorities for their input.
“I don’t want to be flippant,” he said, adding that the matter was serious.
Meanwhile, in another legal move which impacts on the Western Cape’s gangsterism problem, top gang-busters Major-General Jeremy Vearey and Major-General Peter Jacobs are headed to the Labour Court. They were placed in different posts about two months ago and plan to challenge what they view as effective demotions.
Mncedisi Mbolekwa, provincial secretary of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, which is representing the officers, said lawyers were preparing to deal with the matter in the Labour Court.
The shifting of Vearey and Jacobs from their posts exposed apparent rifts in police management.
It also left several senior police officers questioning what would become of their investigations into gangs and high-profile individuals.
Last year’s provincial police annual report said the Western Cape needed 1 500 employees to ensure a minimum staff requirement of 98 percent was achieved.
In April the police announced that members of the province’s anti-gang strategy, Operation Combat, would be deployed back to police stations to boost staff numbers. But this decision was quietly reversed.
Sunday Argus