DA undermines SAPS and senior police staff
The DA in the Western Cape must immediately stop to vilify and destabilise the police who are working under extremely difficult conditions where they have to also continuously deal with hardened criminals like murderers, drug lords and gangsters.
The DA campaign to undermine the South African Police Service (SAPS) includes the Zille commission of inquiry aimed at feeding the obsession of dissatisfaction with service by SAPS, abusing the legislature to batter generals and even be rude to senior police staff.
ANC Western Cape chief whip Pierre Uys says: "It is very clear the DA is pitting people against Western Cape commissioner (Gen.) Arno Lamoer and the police. The latest attack by the DA in its campaign against SAPS is contained in a bombardment by a junior politician on Lamoer.
"In his attacks DA MPL Mark Wiley speaks down at Lamoer in a condescending manner tantamount to belittling or scolding him in public. Lamoer is accused of various things and Wiley stoops to even unethically pre-empting an appearance of Lamoer before the standing committee of the legislature later in October."
This attack in the past week again spilled over in newspapers.
"By using all sorts of tactics to cast a bad light on Lamoer and his staff, the DA members of the legislature are in breach of the constitutional imperative to ‘promote good relations between the police and communities' by overstepping the line of oversight to engage in police bashing.
"We have already seen a spike in the killing of police since the DA intensified this campaign. The DA's inability to divorce its community safety MEC Dan Plato from praising known gangsters and entertaining them publicly also adds fuel to the fire. The ANC says this has to stop now.
"Wiley's unilateral public attack is done in his individual capacity, is driven by his private conspiracy theories or pet itches and he does not represent the legislature when he does that (as he tries to infer). The ANC distances it from this uncalled for action and calls on the DA to abandon its ill-considered campaign. It continues on this intolerable course at its own peril," Uys says.
Another example of the DA's manipulation is seen in the closing of certain schools in Manenberg under the ploy of gangster activities against the good advice of police. This was done even though the challenges with drug lords and gangsters goes far beyond Manenberg into areas like Nyanga, Gugulethu and even Mitchell's Plain where the DA did nothing!
"The suspicious abuse of state resources for cheap party political gains and as part of the DA anti-police campaign is done for all the wrong reasons. The education budget is plundered of millions of Rand and the rogue Metro Police was sent in by the DA in an unsustainable action. Why other so-called hot spots are not included is beyond reason! Why townships are deprived of services while the Metro Police is withdrawn from high crime areas to be sent to Manenberg defies belief. The DA must stop the trickeries. Premier Helen Zille must govern and take control of her DA troops that destabilise the province," Uys concluded.
Statement issued by ANC Chief Whip Pierre Uys, September 26 2013
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
