Communities of Ekurhuleni have been denied a one-stop crime-fighting centre by ANC Government
by Cllr. Jaco Terblanche — DA Shadow MMC for Community Safety in Ekurhuleni
Date: 06 July 2021
Release: Immediate
Type: Media Statement
At the beginning of the current Political Term in 2016, the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) planned to implement a one-stop crime-fighting centre. The purpose of the centre was to strengthen the City’s efforts in the fight against crime.
Five years later and the ANC and its coalition partners* have done absolutely nothing to get this important initiative off the ground. The item has been on the budget in every financial year since 2016/2017, indicating that funds are available to execute the project. What is lacking, however, is the political will from the ANC and its coalition* partners. Every year, the funds are returned to National Treasury without being used — denying the people of Ekurhuleni much needed safety, which this initiative would have brought.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni has been calling for a crime prevention strategy, which we regard as being critical in ensuring the safety of the City’s residents. We have also been urging the CoE to invest in CCTV surveillance cameras to monitor the streets of Ekurhuleni and Council-owned buildings. In addition, the surveillance cameras will assist the Metro in its ability to monitor service delivery progress across all departments.
Our calls have fallen on deaf ears, while criminals have been operating unabated in the ANC and its coalition-led CoE. When the DA questioned the Department of Community Safety about the crime-fighting centre, their pathetic excuse was that they are still waiting for the ICT Department to assist them — this is merely passing the buck and not being accountable. It is completely absurd that one of the largest municipalities in the country cannot set this project in motion.
In the DA-run Local Municipality of Midvaal, the Municipality implemented an initiative to improve crime-fighting and community safety in the whole of Midvaal. Midvaal’s radio and CCTV control room monitors 400 CCTV cameras at strategic points and hot spots. These include 50 cameras with number plate recognition software at all border entry points, main routes and in the CBD. The cameras are linked to the National Database of the South African Police Services (SAPS) for stolen vehicles, as well as vehicles suspected of being involved in crime. These vehicles are flagged via an application on the community patroller’s cell phones, and SAPS are also involved in this system for rapid reaction. This way, the DA-led Midvaal Municipality recovers, on average, twenty stolen vehicles, including hijacked trucks, a month.
Similarly, the DA-run City of Cape Town’s (CoT) comprehensive CCTV network has proven to be incredibly effective in detecting criminal activity in the DA-run City. The CoT’s Metro Police Department manages 819 CCTV cameras throughout the metro on a 24-hour basis. Cape Town’s CCTV footage has led to the successful arrests of 160 suspects since July 2020. These arrests were made on a range of charges which included, breaking and entering, theft, possession of drugs, possession of an illegal firearm, extortion, attempted hijacking, driving under the influence of alcohol and cable theft.
DA-led cities are increasingly turning to technology-aided surveillance to police public spaces, while the CoE lags, much to the detriment of its residents. The residents of Ekurhuleni deserve a government that will prioritise their safety. Residents of Ekurhuleni need to know that the DA will ensure that they live in a safer city, and prevent money from being returned to National Treasury due to incompetence caused by departments failing to work together. A DA-run Ekurhuleni will maximise the use of crime-fighting technology such as CCTV cameras to improve crime detection and response times, specifically in crime hotspots. In addition, The DA will encourage closer collaboration with existing security and surveillance companies to assist in this endeavour
#Time4Change
*ANC Coalition Partners: African Independent Congress (AIC), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Patriotic Alliance (PA) and Independent Ratepayers Association of South Africa (IRASA)
Cllr. Jaco Terblanche
DA Shadow MMC for Community Safety in Ekurhuleni
