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The DA calls on KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Community Safety and Liaison MEC, Sipho Hlomuka, to arrange an urgent dialogue with the province's top political leaders to discuss the issue of organised crime.

The call comes after a dramatic increase in shootings during the past few weeks including the recent high profile murder of two men in Florida Road, Durban. It also comes after the shooting and killing of five men in Mariannhill near Durban yesterday and several politically related killings involving traditional leaders during the last few weeks.

The laid back attitude towards growing crime levels by KZN’s top brass – along with the inability to come up with a clear plan to keep our communities safe - has led to a situation where criminals are running amok in our province.

Government structures are failing dismally to strategically utilize already scarce policing resources. This while specialised units such as crime intelligence – whose sole responsibility it is to gather information on the ground and prevent such heinous crimes – are invisible and might as well be on holiday.

Given the situation, the DA has serious doubts that the province’s Third Quarter crime statistics – due for release later this week - will show any improvement in the fight against crime. Instead, we anticipate that we are likely to continue seeing the upward trajectory that has existed for the past five years.

The reality is that KZN is a crime ravaged province. Despite this, since Covid-19 first hit in 2020, the budget allocated to the province’s Department of Community Safety and Liaison has in fact gone backwards, from R249million in 2020/2021 to R236million in 2022/23.

That this budget is the lowest across all provincial government departments speaks volumes about the ANC’s commitment to ensuring the safety of our citizens.

Without the necessary funding, there can be little hope of tackling crime. This situation has led to a severe lack of capacity in terms of SAPS officers, with the result that they are under-resourced, under-trained and underpaid while forced to put up with numerous ongoing infrastructure challenges.

The DA has offered many solutions to KZN’s crime epidemic but there is a clear lack of political will to implement them. In the interim, the knock-on effect on the people of our province is devastating.

The DA expects MEC Hlomuka to act without delay and initiate dialogue with the province’s major political leaders. The current situation cannot continue.

Next year the people of KZN will go to the polls. They will have the opportunity to vote for a government that takes their safety seriously. That government is the DA.

Issued by Sharon Hoosen MPL - DA Spokesperson for Community Safety & Liaison in KZN