Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis announced that the latest quarterly crime statistics show promising signs for City policing efforts supporting the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Murder rates have declined in all six precincts with dedicated Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) deployments, alongside increases in firearm and drug detections.
Decline in LEAP areas
Of the top 30 murder stations nationally, half of those showing year-on-year declines are LEAP areas in Cape Town. The most substantial declines were recorded in Delft (-24%), Gugulethu (-34%), and Mitchells Plain (-33%).
“Violent crime remains far too high, but we do take some encouragement from declines in murder in LEAP deployment areas,” said Hill-Lewis.
He highlighted that City officers assist in confiscate around 400 illegal guns annually.
However, the conviction rate sits at just 5% due to a broken criminal justice system, forcing officers to repeatedly arrest the same offenders.
Because of this, Hill-Lewis argued that Metro Police require criminal investigative powers to build winnable case dockets for gang, gun, and drug crimes.
He noted that SAPS is under severe pressure and needs support to secure convictions.
Support needed
Mayor Hill-Lewis said earlier last week that Acting Minister Cachalia was yet to fulfil constitutional obligations to engage the City promptly on its intergovernmental dispute for more metro policing powers to investigate crime.
‘Following a month of silence from the Minister, I have again written to him offering new dates to convene our dispute mediation. We are acting urgently on behalf of communities with the goal of getting the Minister’s agreement to amend his SAPS Act Amendment Bill currently before parliament – this is a simple practical way to expand metro policing powers,’ said Hill-Lewis.
Acting Minister Cachalia claimed to have an “open mind” on investigative powers for Metro Police, making these remarks recently before parliament’s Police Portfolio Committee.
‘Section 205 of the Constitution says that the SAPS Act must establish a framework for policing powers and functions to be discharged by a police service in the local government sphere “where this is appropriate”.
‘We have demonstrated, over and over, that it is indeed appropriate here in Cape Town – that our Metro Police are prepared, resourced and ready to take on investigations for specific crimes.
‘The dispute mediation is an opportunity to put the residents of Cape Town first and find a good faith solution that avoids the courts,’ said Hill-Lewis.
“For the sake of communities living in daily fear of crime, the time has come to ‘catch and convict’, which our officers stand ready to do in support of SAPS and the NPA,” Hill-Lewis added.
JP Smith, mayco member for Safety and Security, praised the growing impact of City officers.
Smith attributed the falling murder rates in all six LEAP zones to the targeted deployment strategy executed by the City and Western Cape Government, which heavily focused resources and personnel into these specific crime hotspots.
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