Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane has said the Western Cape is “losing the war against crime and criminals are running around freely.”
Maimane was speaking to the Western Cape crime-fighting unit in the gang-ridden community of Bonteheuwel on Monday. According to the Cape Argus, whilst welcoming the move to deploy the SANDF in the fight against gangsterism, Maimane sees the reliance on the army as unsustainable.
“It is going to be important for the SA Police Service to be professionalised and provincialised so that we can ensure that those gangsters end up in jail and citizens can live freely,” he said.
“We need a partnership between National, Provincial and City governments, so I support the deployment of SANDF to our communities,” Maimane said.
The DA in the Western Cape is currently pursuing a decentralisation of police control from the National government. If successful, the DA led Western Cape government will have control of policing resource allocation in the province.
More: Cape Argus