Cape Town - Police Minister Bheki Cele is facing a huge pushback over comments that he made regarding the devolution of police powers to provinces in the fight against crime.
Civil society organisation Action Society has thrown its weight behind the Western Cape government’s call for the devolution of national police powers to provinces.
Director Ian Cameron said their response was in reaction to Police Minister Bheki Cele’s comments at the Khayelitsha Crime Response Summit.
At the summit, Cele had castigated the provincial government for asking for the devolution of police powers instead of focusing on jointly working to resolve the crime issues that residents were facing.
Cele said it was ignorant of the province to ask for the devolution of the SAPS to the province, considering that no province could be given policing powers unless the constitution was changed.
“Instead of wasting time and energy calling for the devolution of the SAPS, the province should rather work together with the national police ministry to strengthen any weaknesses,” he said.
Responding to Cele’s comments, Cameron said that the national police department was failing to combat crime effectively in dangerous communities across the country, as highlighted in the fourth quarter crime statistics, because of under-resourcing.
“The province can be much more effective if Cele approves devolution, and section 206[4] of the Constitution provides the assignment of policing functions to the provincial executive through national legislation or the national policing policy,” Cameron said.
Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen also lashed out at Cele, saying that it was the minister’s continued mismanagement of the SAPS that had resulted in the province stepping in to fight crime.
“Cele has consistently failed to provide us with the necessary resources, so we had to step in where he and the national government failed. It cannot be acceptable that to this day the SAPS in Khayelitsha and so many other areas across the province continue to be under-resourced.”
Allen’s statement was backed by DA provincial leader Tertius Simmers, who said that the party was appalled by Cele’s dismissal of the Western Cape government’s efforts to devolve policing to a provincial level.
“Under Cele’s watch, the SAPS has become deficient. Every day in South Africa, 67 people are murdered, 153 people are raped, and 364 violent robberies take place. We are losing the war on crime, and Minister Cele is not capable of turning things around.”
The GOOD Party said while it supports the concept of devolution of powers where local governments can do better, it is not convinced the province’s call comes from a good place.
Secretary-general Brett Herron said: “Our party’s view is that as many powers as possible should be devolved to the correct sphere of government. However, when it comes to this specific call, we think that policing powers should be devolved correctly to local government level, and not to provincial.”
ANC MPL Mesuli Kama said: “We’ve said that this call has nothing to do with fighting crime, but everything to do with the DA’s political interest. The DA has made the issue of crime their campaign point, instead of realising how crime affects local communities.”