ANC says Zille must stop blame game
10 August 2015
The Western Cape ANC condemns premier Helen Zille’s rantings and blame game that the recommendations of her Khayelitsha Commission of Enquiry report have not yet been implemented because of “national government”.
This is once again Zille’s classic politics of deflection and blame shifting to “national government” when her own provincial government and MEC for Community Safety (Dan Plato) fails to deliver to the people of the Western Cape; and when she is asked to explain to the public why the DA government falls short the regular rash response is to deflect the blame to “national government”.
ANC Western Cape secretary Faiez Jacobs says: “The truth is there are many recommendations in that report that require her and her MEC of Community Safety to lead on, such as supporting CPF’s and all other civil society organizations involved in the policing and safety.
“The fact is that it is under this DA government that community policing relations deteriorated and broke down due to her MEC of Community Safety.
“It is a known fact that the commission was set up for party political purposes by the DA government to deflect the failures of her own MEC to the “national government” and to try to embarrass the national government by blaming them (the national government) alone for all the weaknesses in policing, safety and security in Khayelitsha.
“The commission itself was a massive waste of tax payer’s money as there are numerous existing government departments and Chapter 9 institutions that have the mandate to investigate the problems of policing - such as the National and Provincial Secretariats for Policing and IPID, amongst others.
“The findings itself by the commission were neither new nor surprising, in particular the break down in community policing relations and support to neighbourhood structures. The ANC raised this issue since the DA took over the provincial government and declared a war on community safety and security structures such as CPF’s and NGO’s by cuts of funds and departmental support.
“The fact is that since the DA government came into power in 2009 it has year on year done everything in its power to break down community policing relations and neighbourhood watches by drastically decreasing the resources (human, financial and physical) to community policing and safety structures and all other civil society structures involved in peace and stability in the poor African and coloured areas such as Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain (amongst others) and diverting these resources to the historically white middle class areas.
“It is also a known fact that when the ANC was in power between 2002 and 2009 the Western Cape had the most active community police forums and vibrant civil society structures in both African and coloured poor and working class areas. These communities had thousands of Bambanani volunteers and CPF members working very closely with all state structures in safety and security and crime figures came down! This was done under the leadership of the then MEC for Community Safety Leonard Ramatlakane who invested millions of Rand into support of these community structures.”
Statement issued by ANC Western Cape Provincial Secretary Faiez Jacobs, August 10 2015
