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Retain metro police, says Zille
27/07/2007 17:48 - (SA)
Cape Town - Plans to incorporate municipalities' metro police units into the SA Police Service (SAPS) could not have come at a worse time, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday.
"In the middle of a crime wave that threatens to wash away the gains of our democracy... comes the next phase in national government's plan to take over the municipal police units in our cities," she warned in her weekly online newsletter.
Zille, who is also mayor of Cape Town, said she was informed by ministerial letter on June 25 of the planned "integration of municipality police into the SAPS".
On Thursday this week, city managers from around the country had been summoned to a meeting on the subject with Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi in Pretoria.
Yet international experience had confirmed policing worked best when closest to the people.
"With incidents of serious crimes such as murder, rape and aggravated robbery spiralling nation-wide, the effective disarmament of the metro police could not come at a worse time.
"The record of the local units is differential, but sometimes sound. At least with the municipal police, there is a chance of some forces providing adequate service... Under centralised control, all, predictably, will be equally bad.
"Experience in Johannesburg and Durban attests: the public approves effective and accountable local police units rather than an unresponsive, bureaucratic force which cannot contain crime.
"Metro police forces offer one of the few viable ways in which municipalities can lead the fight against lawlessness. They successfully bring policing closer to the people, through visibility and an intimate knowledge of local conditions," Zille said.
Centralising control of police forces led to an increase in crime, and there were many examples of this in South Africa.
"The abolition of commandos has left farming communities dangerously exposed, and is spurring a retreat from the land.
"Likewise, absorbing the Child Protection Units into the SAPS has scattered specialist input, contributing to an onslaught on women and children that shows no signs of abating.
"Other agencies closed down are the marine anti-poaching unit, Operation Neptune, and SANAB (the South African Narcotics Bureau).
"The statistics confirm: when specialist units are shut down, the inevitable result is a vacuum in crime-fighting."
Over the past year, violent attacks on farms had increased by 25%; and confiscated abalone had "skyrocketed to more than a million, from a mere 21 000 shellfish in 1994".
"Crimes against women and children are appallingly high: more than 52 000 rapes were committed last year, and child abuse is rising.
"Drug-related offences went up 10% in the same period, with 80% of crime directly linked by the SAPS to substance abuse."
Zille said Selebi presided over a force that was steadily losing its ability to deliver on its mandate.
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