Cape Town - The ANC has slammed the DA after a statement by Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith slating the launch of the police’s anti-gang unit as “too little, too late”.
Smith said while he welcomed its launch, the police had a dismal record of fighting gangsterism over the past decade. Evidence of this was the National Prosecuting Authority achieving a conviction rate of between 2% and 3% for gang-related murders, that police had investigated over 808 gang murders last year and more than 5000 murders in the past decade.
“The national government withdrew 4500 cops from the Western Cape, dropping the ratio of police serving the public to almost half (one police officer serving 560 members of the public) of what other parts of South Africa are privileged to enjoy (one police officer serving 369 members of the public),” said Smith.
The ANC’s Western Cape elections head, Ebrahim Rasool, said Smith’s attack on the national government was a sign that the DA was panicking.
“The entirety of their elections strategy has suddenly collapsed (with the launch of the unit). There are some parties that need fear in order to win, and the moment hope steps in and fear departs, their strategy is gone.
“That’s what is happening here,” said Rasool. He acknowledged that more police officers would not bring an end to gangsterism on the Cape Flats.
“When we had our campaigns against crime while I was premier, we built 32000 houses a year, we were able to bring the unemployment down to 18%, and we were able to ensure that schools were better capacitated,” said Rasool.
Fighting gangsterism would mean delivering on housing, improving education, providing jobs and fighting crime.
“Their entire safety and security strategy that they had in mind was based on the army. They are now trying to claim that they always stood for an anti-gang unit.
“They were going on a populist binge about bringing in the army,” said Rasool.
Asked about the ANC’s possible fortunes in the Western Cape, where it has been out of power since 2009, Rasool said the party was taking it step by step.
“What has happened this week is that the DA’s support has come down to 31% from two-thirds (in 2016). What the task of the ANC is, is to push up our support base, and the initiatives by the president is going to do that.
“That’s what JP and Helen Zille fear,” said Rasool.
@WeekendArgus