By Alicia Mmashakana
There have been nearly 60 shootings in the Cape Flats in recent days, leaving at least 30 people dead, according to Democratic Alliance police spokesperson Ian Cameron.
“We must not tolerate or normalise communities being warzones, where children die in hails of bullets while playing outside and going to school,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
Last year, the national government, police and the Western Cape government signed a Memorandum of Understanding towards better, more effective cooperation in the fight against crime, particularly in Cape Town.
At the time, Premier Alan Winde said that he hoped that MoU would “translate into the SAPS in the Western Cape being adequately resourced to more effectively do its job in making communities safer”.
However, the city is still being plagued by gangsterism.
Cameron, who chairs the police portfolio committee, said the DA would push for the committee to focus on a complete revamp of the Anti-Gang Unit, which was heavily understaffed and under resourced.
He said the SAPS’ K9 Unit Cape Town only had two working anti-narcotics dogs and its Flying Squad only has half the capacity it needed.
He said the DA would also push for better support for police on the ground through physical radios in coordinating responses, which the city has offered SAPS numerous times.
Gang lords needed to be targeted through cooperation with the South African Reserve Service by seizing funds made illegally.
The DA would also push to devolve gang violence investigations and gunfire cases to the province, which Cameron said had a more complex understanding of ground operations.
The party wanted a task team to be established between the metros, SAPS and the National Prosecuting Authority in ensuring gang lords were convicted.
“This devastating scourge must end, and with the cooperation of SAPS, the DA will see it through. We will continue to fight with the mandate we have, but if it were up to me, management should be scrapped and replaced. They are clearly not up to the task,” he said.
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