Police Minister Bheki Cele is to meet with Western Cape government officials within the next month to discuss failures relating to policing in the province. The provincial government has declared a formal intergovernmental dispute with the Police Minister, citing the shortage of police officers in the Western Cape as a major challenge.

MEC for Community Safety Alan Winde said the province is “dramatically under-resourced” compared to other provinces. While one officer must protect 375 people on average nationally, in the Western Cape, the ratio is 1:509.

“It makes me angry that the national ANC government gives our province fewer resources to fight crime than other provinces. The Western Cape needs urgent additional personnel to enable the Western Cape Provincial Commissioner to take steps to address gang violence and the appalling murder rate, as well as to protect learners and schools, public transport and state infrastructure such as ambulances,” he told VOC Breakfast Beat on Monday.

Winde said it has now been six months since the Western Cape Government first wrote to the Minister with a list of urgent Policing Needs and Priorities for the province, which the Minister has ignored.

“He has failed to respond to our urgent requests, even after a follow-up letter in December, and hand delivering the letter to President Ramaphosa in person in Parliament in February. The Minister of Police is obliged by the Constitution to consult and take account of the specific needs of our province when determining policy. By ignoring these needs and priorities, Minister Cele is violating the Constitution.”

The Western Cape Provincial Police Ombudman’s investigation into South African Police Service (SAPS) reservists concluded that “there has been a significant decrease in the number of active police reservists between 2008 and 2018” and that “[t]he decrease in the total number of reservists available over weekends, is directly impacting on the efficiency of the SAPS in the Western Cape to reduce the levels of reporting crime”.

To assist the police, Winde said the provincial government offered to give SAPS R5 million to pay for police reservists to be deployed in the province, to act as a force multiplier and reduce crime. The Western Cape further offered provincial government volunteers to take on administrative duties at SAPS stations, such as Commissioners of Oaths, so that more police officers are freed up to fight crime on patrol.

But he claimed the minister ignored the department’s pleas and has not responded to the province’s urgent policing needs. He added that Minister Cele was now “by Section 41 of the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act 13 of 2005 to meet urgently with the Western Cape Government to respond to and address these failures”.

“Crime is a responsibility of the national government and the SAPS is controlled from the national government in Tshwane. When we ask for more police officers, the ANC government looks away, and when we ask for the army to be sent in to defeat gangs, the ANC government says no. We are sick of the national government refusing to hear our cry for help,” Winde stressed.

VOC