LOCAL
Police Minister Bheki Cele has criticised the Western Cape provincial government for its call of wanting to take control of the running of SAPS in the region, saying the province is wasting its time. The province has in recent years been calling for the allocation of SAPS powers to the province. Cele says such devolution of power can only be passed through changes in the constitution. He was addressing a crime imbizo at Makhaza in Khayelitsha:
“The last call I read is that the provincial police must be given to the province, there is nothing called the provincial police, that’s why they are called South African Police Service. Don’t waste time and energy, let’s work on how to strengthen, if there are weaknesses, so let’s work and move forward, the South African police. You’ll have to change the constitution, I don’t know how long it will take, for now don’t waste time and energy, these people want to be safe they don’t want labels.”
Meanwhile, Western Cape MEC for Police Oversight and Community Safety, Regan Allen, has called on the national government to send more police resources to Khayelitsha. The province has been at loggerheads with Cele over police resourcing in the province. The Western Cape government claims that police are severely under-resourced in the province while Cele argues that the province is the most resourced in the country.
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