Cape Town Gang and Drug Task Team has to clean up failing ANC government’s mess

1 October 2018

This Task Team falls under the City of Cape Town’s Metro Police which is ably led by Director Charl Kitching. It consists of a group of hand-picked officers whose sole focus is gang-related safety issues on the Cape Flats. Some of the Task Team’s main activities include profiling of gang members and drug dealers and conducting search and seizure operations. It is instrumental in combating gang and narcotics-related crime in the area.

The Gang and Drugs Task Team represent one of the many ways in which the DA-led government of the City, as well as the Western Cape Provincial Government, work hard at fighting crime, despite receiving little institutional support from the ANC national government and having severely limited powers and mandate in this regard. The anti-crime operations, some of which are in response to tip-offs from ward councillors and community members, are conducted several times a month with a view to curb drug dealing and drug use in our communities, as well as to crack down on illegal firearms.

In terms of section 207 of the Constitution policing is a national competency, which means it falls within the control of the failing ANC government. Sections 207(1) and 207(2),  respectively, read:

The President as head of the national executive must appoint a man or a woman as the National Commissioner of the police service, to control and manage the police service;

The National Commissioner must exercise control over and manage the police service in accordance with the national policing policy and the directions of the Cabinet member responsible for policing.

Under the failing ANC national government, the South African Police Service (SAPS) is failing to keep South Africans safe. The SAPS Annual Report for 2017/18 records a decline in police-to-population ratio from 1 SAPS officer for every 369 citizens in 2016/17 to 1 SAPS officer for every 375 citizens in 2017/18. The SAPS also received a qualified audit from the Auditor-General for the second year in a row. This is while the murder rate in the country increased from 52 to 56 murders per day, and the number of reported rapes jumped from 102 a day to 109.

The ANC government also seems to make a concerted effort to keep areas under DA-government even more under-resourced than areas under their own government. In the City of Cape Town, the police-to-population ratio stands at 1 SAPS officer for every 560 citizens, while in Lwandle in the Strand this figure reaches a shocking 1 SAPS officer for every 718 citizens and in Harare, Khayelitsha 1 SAPS officer for every 745 citizens – almost four times the ideal ratio of 1 SAPS for every 220 citizens.

Crime will continue to rise under the ANC’s leadership. The DA is the only party dedicated to fighting crime and protecting all citizens. South Africans will have a chance to make safer communities a reality by voting for the DA in 2019.

Issued by John Steenhuisen, DA Team One South Africa Spokesperson on Crime, 1 October 2018