Cape Town - Safety and security mayoral committee member JP Smith is confident that the crime situation in the city centre can be reversed despite “intermittent spikes”.
Smith said a meeting was held this week with Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) and SAPS where the crime statistics in the CBD were looked at.
“What we are seeing are intermittent spikes in the crime. Before 2000, the CBD was bad but was turned around. We are slowly losing ground and starting to see that same scenario return,” said Smith.
He said despite this he was not in the least worried because he believed the situation could be reversed because plans were in place.
“These guys have been lucky, but they will not always be lucky. I think we neglected the city a bit too long, relying on the CCID. I spoke to some of the restaurant owners there this week who said it has gotten better but is still far from ideal.
“We are adding more to the
analytics in our cameras; there is a little within the budget for this. I am confident we will reverse the
situation,” said Smith.
He explained that there seemed to be a criminal element that was hiding among the “homeless” on Long Street.
Smith said some of the people who acted like they were homeless had homes but hung out on Long Street.
“Stats are showing that about 70% of the people on the streets actually have homes but are not returning home,” Smith said.
Another factor contributing to the crime, Smith believes, is the awaiting trial prisoners who are being released from Pollsmoor Prison.
“They are contributing to the contact crime in the CBD,” he said.
Stats showed that last year, Cape Town Central had the highest number of reported crimes, with 34146 cases reported, followed by Mitchells Plain with 28676, then Kraaifontein which had 20919 cases. To identify the areas of concern, CCID implemented an incident desk management system where all complaints received, crime reports and incidents detected were electronically logged.
A gastropub manager operating on Long Street believes crime is at an all-time high on the popular street.
He told the Weekend Argus that since 2010 the situation had been escalating. He said there were often roadblocks and police presence on Long Street, but the syndicates still managed to operate and pickpocket unsuspecting victims during the day.
“I myself would not walk down Long Street in the evenings. I mean, you are walking and someone will come next to you and put their shoe next to your shoe and ask you what shoe size you are. While you are looking down, everything is taken off you. Your wallet and phone would be gone. They use this as a distraction,” explained the manager, who declined to be named.
“Social issues such as aggressive begging, urinating in public, erecting of structures and drinking/drug usage in public continued to dominate all other crime categories,” said CCID safety and security manager Muneeb Hendricks.
He said most complaints could be described as “nuisance crimes”, as opposed to serious crime.