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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape is concerned that the province’s police response time ranked the slowest in the entire country.

This comes after a response by the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, last week revealed that in crime-related emergencies, residents in the Northern Cape are left to the mercy of criminals for over an hour due to the delayed response of the South African Police Service (SAPS) to tend to complaints.

SAPS delayed reaction to crime is not surprising given the dire lack of operational vehicles available to police offices at stations across the province. Oversight inspections conducted at various police stations last year revealed that many vehicles are either standing on bricks at stations, or at the provincial garage waiting for parts to be sourced from service providers in other provinces.

The DA is not satisfied that the province has a vehicle repair contract with service providers in Johannesburg and Durban as this drastically delays the turnaround time of repairing SAPS vehicles in the province. This was previously confirmed by the Provincial Police Commissioner, Maj Gen Koliswa Otola, in a meeting with the DA Provincial Spokesperson for Transport, Safety and Liaison, Ofentse Mokae.

Policing needs to be bolstered to adequately address the increase in crime, with the third quarterly crime statistics revealing a spike in especially violent crimes, such as attempted murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm.

It is crucial that the repair of police vehicles is decentralized so that crime can be responded to immediately, especially as the province is becoming increasingly prone to big city crimes and turning more dangerous as criminals capitalize on SAPS’s weaknesses.

The DA is committed to overhauling SAPS for a more efficient police service and we encourage voters to rescue South Africa from crime by voting DA on 29 May 2024.

Issued by Dr Isak Fritz, MPL - DA Northern Cape Premier Candidate