Cape Town - The Western Cape will soon have a panel of high-ranking advisers who will make specific recommendations as to how the province should respond to the policing, safety and security challenges.
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde made the announcement during his State of Province Address (Sopa) on Thursday morning.
The premier was commenting on the alleged under-resourcing of the province’s policing precincts and disturbing evidence that some in the service have been ‘captured’ by gangs.
He said he was in the process of establishing the panel, which would have ‘eminent persons’ to make specific recommendations as to how we should respond to this cancer which has infected so much of the province’s policing.
“As a start, the panel would work to ensure that the heads of the province’s crime-fighting departments would remain unsullied by the proceeds of crime. Last year, a high court judgment revealed that gangsters have infiltrated the police service in the Western Cape.
“The very people tasked with keeping our residents safe are themselves part of the problem,” Winde said.
Winde following the release of the judgment reportedly tasked the Western Cape Police Ombudsman to investigate.
“After the Ombud’s report was been finalised, I put into motion the next two steps I would be taking in response to the report’s contents. The one being the establishment of the independent panel and the other ensuring that the heads of the province’s crime-fighting departments would remain unsullied by the proceeds of crime.”
“The provincial government will be funding lifestyle audits of the top brass involved in crime-fighting in this province. We want to make sure that in the words of Judge Daniel Thulare those Saps members who are at ‘the table where the Provincial Commissioner of the Saps in the Western Cape sits with his senior managers’ are untarnished. I believe these lifestyle audits are an important part of our oversight duty,” Winde said.
Winde said while the initiatives would be challenging, the provincial government still needed to tackle the issues head-on.
He said: “In 2022, The violence Prevention Unit was established under the auspices of the Provincial Department of Health and Wellness. Rooted in our evidence and data-based approach to addressing crime, we are learning lessons in how we can better utilise our health resources and data to fight crime.”
“The unit is equipped to identify and design interventions to prevent violent crime in our communities. We cannot only fight crime reactively, we need to prevent it by addressing its root causes.”