"Suspend DA Councilor JP Smith for assault on busker"

Cosatu is outraged at the assault on the busker in the City of Cape Town. This brutal assault is a sad indictment of a City that tries to project itself as a "caring City." The City seems to care about the rich and city communities, but have little regard for the people from the Cape Flats.

The effectiveness of the Metro Police in this instance must be judged in relation to the attitude of its political leader in the City. JP Smith has proven himself to be unable to address the very basic safety issues of the City. He is the person who wasted loads of the City money on buying a machine that tells you where the bullet was shot from. When the community told him the shot was fired where the body was, he seemed surprised.

This Member of the Mayco of Council has distinguished himself with his incompetence at an operational level, as well as at a leadership level. No wonder then that the people who he leads acts in such a desperate manner to deal with community matters. JP Smith has instructed the police officers to treat the busker in that uncivilized manner, as he felt his authority was being undermined. When I had once pointed out his inadequacies in Council he threatened to unleash the Police upon me, as if it is his private army.

This attitude is however symptomatic of the DA, which has no regard for poor people or how to engage them respectfully. It is this attitude where political leaders of the DA treat people's frustrations with disregard that leads to desperate acts of poo throwing.

JP Smith should be suspended from leading the Municipal Police until a full investigation is completed into this whole sordid affair, and he should also be investigated for complete incompetence in the face of a spiraling safety crisis on the Cape Flats.

Statement issued by Tony Ehrenreich, COSATU Western Cape general secretary, July 10 2013

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