Cape Town - The stated intention of both the City and the province to halve the Western Cape murder rate by 2029 using the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (Leap) has come under the spotlight in the legislature.
Opposition members of the standing committee on community safety, Ferlon Christians (ACDP) and Mesuli Kama (ANC) took officials from the City and from the Police Oversight and Community Safety Department to task over the strategy.
The questions arose during a briefing to the committee in which a presentation by the department said that the province’s safety plan prioritised a reduction in the murder rate and therefore the deployment of Leap officers to the areas with the highest homicide rates had been prioritised.
Christians specifically mentioned the Grassy Park area, where he said Leap officers had previously been deployed to stabilise the area.
“People say when Leap officers come in, they stabilise the area and then they leave, and then the troubles flare up again. I want to know if there is a plan after an area has been stabilised.”
He also wanted to know whether the public had direct access to Leap officers, and whether they could report that a crime was being committed.
Kama followed this up with a question on what interventions were undertaken by the City and the department with regards to addressing the fact that most of those involved in criminal activities, including homicide, were mainly young men.
Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith said the City wished it had more Leap officers that could be deployed to stabilise the entire city at all times, but that these were expensive interventions.
“Also our core business ideally should be traffic and by-law enforcement but the reality is that with what's happening with national policing resources, we have increasingly to step into these spaces with our gang enforcement, liquor enforcement, marine enforcement and rail enforcement.”
Responding to Kama, Smith said the City had a range of interventions in terms of economic development, drug treatment and access to basic services.
He said gang violence persisted because to deal with it properly, a dedicated and organised policing response including special prosecutors and an increased investment in specialised units, such as the Anti-Gang Unit, were needed.