KZN Community Safety MEC must go as no one is safe in our province

24 April 2023

The DA in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) calls for the removal of Community Safety and Liaison MEC, Sipho Hlomuka, following a bloody three days in the province which saw 17 people shot dead in less than 24 hours in five separate incidents.

The killings include the deaths of 10 family members and a child who was fatally shot while walking to school on a public road.

Crime continues unabated in KZN. It has become a war zone. People are dying every day and no one is safe, yet nothing changes.

Last week, during her Budget address, Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube promised KZN’s citizens that government would not surrender to criminals. She also announced that more than R130million had been allocated to crime-fighting.

The question is: Where is the action plan for this? It certainly hasn’t been presented to KZN’s Community Safety and Liaison portfolio committee. The Premier’s hollow words are more empty promises from an ANC government cannot follow through when it comes to implementation.

During the past 10 years, KZN’s Community Safety and Liaison department spent an estimated R2billion, supposedly on fighting crime. Yet, our people are worse off today.

During the past financial year it submitted more than 300 reports on crime but we have seen no reduction in this scourge. The department, under MEC Hlomuka, also spent R250million on reports and imbizos. What about fighting crime and capacitating SAPS?

It is precisely due to a weak SAPS that criminals have free reign in KZN. With less than 18 000 officers and almost every SAPS station short-staffed, it is doomed for failure. The DA has consistently raised these issues, yet there is no attempt by the MEC to resolve them and ensure that KZN has a strong, capacitated, highly trained, and focused police force.

Our province cannot afford to wait any longer for proper leadership and proper law enforcement. We cannot wait until the next quarterly crime report, and we cannot wait for more innocent people to die. This MEC must be removed.

The DA is working hard to remove this ANC government from power and make KZN a safe and peaceful place to live. We will do what we have already done in other places where we govern and reduce crime by implementing logical solutions and employing the right people for the job.

Issued by Sharon Hoosen, DA KZN Spokesperson on Community Safety and Liaison, 24 April 2023