ANC shadow Community Safety MEC in the Western Cape, Mesuli Kama is not impressed with the State of the Province Address delivered by Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde yesterday. Kama has stated that Winde “is not serious about crime,” has “betrayed the people” and that the DA is continuing to play “petty politics”.

In the SOPA, the DA outlined “four key areas of delivery” for the following five-year term.

“As the ANC, we are greatly disappointed at the State of the Province Address by the premier,” said Kama.

“Our worry is that the premier continues to play petty politics about the issue of crime. As we continue to do that, people are dying every day – lives are lost, every day.”

“Crime in the Western Cape is at a level where we need to unite as communities…he [Winde] doesn’t concretise a proper plan with timeframes as to how we are going to fight crime.”

Kama also explained that references made by the DA to unfair treatment of the Western Cape by national government (regarding the allocation of police resources) have been “proven untrue”.

“What we hear strongly in the speech is that there is an unfair treatment of the Western Cape in terms of police deployment. This was proven untrue…

What is of great concern in the Western Cape, is the strategic allocation of resources…areas that have high crime rates are not prioritised as affluent areas such as your Constantias and Bishops Courts are. The issue is the reprioritisation of the allocation of the resources we have. There might be a need for more resources for the police, as a whole, but there’s no unfair treatment of the province,” said Kama.

Kama took a swipe at the DA in a statement, arguing that safety concerns and crime are utilised by the DA to suit their political agendas.

“To the DA, safety issues will always be campaign material – as shown by the establishment of a panel to look into the feasibility of a provincial DA police force.”

“Premier Winde betrayed the people and proved that the crime summit was just a talk shop.”

Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde’s “four priorities” for the next five years are as follows:

• Commitment to creating more jobs and economic opportunities
• Ensuring that each and every resident is able to live a dignified life and that residents become self-empowered
• Ensuring that regardless of where people live and work, their lives are made easier
• Ensuring that citizens are able to live “free from fear”

VOC