Western Cape policing programme falling between the cracks, say provincial legislators

“Is there anything to address these challenges?” Ferlon Christians, an ACDP member of the Western Cape legislature’s standing committee on safety, cultural affairs and sport asked about the province’s Policing Needs and Priorities (PNP) programme. The provincial department of community safety was briefed in the committee on the PNP programme on Tuesday 20 August.

The PNP is a document which presents the efforts of the provincial department of safety “to determine the policing needs and priorities of the Western Cape within the broader context of policing and crime within South Africa”, said then MEC Dan Plato, as outlined in the 2017/2018 report.

Yashina Pillay, chief director of the secretariat of safety and security in the department of community safety, said one of the biggest challenges the department had with the programme was that “it is unclear whether SAPS (South African Police Service), provincially or locally, incorporates the PNPs into their station’s plans.”

Other challenges the programme faced included a lack of monitoring mechanisms to see if the PNP plans were incorporated into operational plans or annual performance plans by institutions.

Christians questioned why the SAPS was not using the report:

“If we don’t know that these plans are incorporated into SAPS, it is a big problem.”

ANC member of the committee, Rachel Windvogel, questioned the department, asking if it had a strategy to address the challenges.

The department said it had worked with more than 140 community policing forums across the province in five districts, except in the City of Cape Town, to allow the forums to engage with the plans.

“The PNP process has enabled the department to regularly engage and consult with communities and capture their concerns. This has been brought to the attention of provincial and national authorities,” said Pillay.

The committee agreed to call Pillay and other department officials back to give more input on the programme, once a new provincial police commissioner had been appointed. DM