Boost for Cape Town crime-fighting – three-way cooperation agreement to be signed on Friday

29 Aug 2024

A cooperation agreement to fight crime in Cape Town marks a departure from the public spats over policing in a city that makes headlines for high levels of gangsterism and extortion-related violence.

A cooperation agreement between the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape government and the national police department will be signed in Cape Town on Friday, 30 August.

Spokesperson for Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, Kamogelo Mogotsi, said: “The purpose and objectives of the agreement … are to record the cooperation of the parties in pursuance of a shared vision for safety and security within the City of Cape Town, which will extend to the entire province, encompassing various initiatives, programmes and strategies aimed at promoting a safe, secure and conducive environment.”

Mogotsi said the parties would cooperate in the “undertaking of research, development, procurement and commissioning of technological infrastructure, sharing of data, physical resources and skills”.

The agreement would also lead to a programme to address sexual violence, gender-based violence and femicide.

The City of Cape Town often makes headlines for mass shootings, extortion and drug-related crimes.

Read more: Extortion gangs in Mother City leave a trail of the dead in their wake

Friday’s event will be held in Belhar, an area of the Cape Flats where the crime rate is high.

According to the latest statistics from October to December 2023, Cape Town has three of the five police stations in South Africa with the highest number of reported murders.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the keynote address at the signing of the memorandum on Friday. Minister Mchunu, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and City of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis will sign the cooperation agreement.

Collaboration, not devolution

The city and province have been at loggerheads with the national government over crime-fighting. Daily Maverick has reported on the city’s fight for more control of policing, with former police minister Bheki Cele and City Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security JP Smith often at odds over the issue.

The Western Cape has also pushed the national government to devolve policing powers to the province.

Read more: DA’s Geordin Hill-Lewis takes over Cape Town’s mayoral chain — and inherits party political spat over policing

Winde urged stakeholders to implement the new agreement with “urgency”.

“Backed by intelligence-gathering and technological enhancements, we can give our SAPS members and law enforcement officers an added edge to stay one step ahead of criminals,” he said.

This week, at a stakeholder event ahead of the signing, SAPS National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola said he believed the collaboration would “yield the much-needed desired results insofar as the reduction of serious and violent crime is concerned… We do believe that jointly, we can go far. We shall and we will overcome these crime-related challenges.”

While collaboration is on the cards, devolution has been ruled out. Mogotsi told Business Day the agreement encompassed cooperation, not transferring or delegating any power to the province or city.

Smith said the city was “fully committed” to the initiative.

“However, we will continue advocating for the devolution of policing powers to local government, as provided for in the Constitution, as the most realistic and effective intervention in the fight against crime,” he said this week.

“Awarding additional policing powers to the city will assist in the fight against crime, and we call on the national minister to extend such powers, as part of this cooperation agreement.”

Leader of the ANC in the provincial legislature Muhammad Khalid Sayed said: “We most certainly welcome this particular agreement… It’s a long time coming.”

He said it set the tone for policing to be streamlined and created a layer for “greater cooperation to keep our community safer”, adding that the party’s legislature spokesperson on community safety, Benson Ngqentsu, had been consulted on the process.

“They’re involving all spheres of government … [and also] all oversight spheres at the different levels of the state… It’s municipality, provincial as well as national, and we commit to exercising proper oversight.” DM

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Collaboration, not devolution