/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The DA in the Western Cape welcomes today's announcement of updated deployments of LEAP officers to some of Cape Town's most-troubled areas as part of a six-month trial. This decision will allow provincial law enforcement units to better respond to the concentrated violence in troubled areas – especially those in which the SAPS suffers its highest vacancy rates.

According to this morning's announcement by the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government’s Department of Community Safety and Police Oversight, LEAP units in less-violence afflicted areas will be reprioritised to double resource existing deployments in six particularly violent areas. In effect, this means that the areas of Delft, Khayelitsha, Phillipi East, Nyanga, Mitchells Plain and Gugulethu will all now receive LEAP complements of more than 100 personnel.

To assist areas outside of these, a dedicated Reaction Unit will be implemented. Consisting of 120 members and based in Hanover Park, this team will work to quickly and effectively respond to incidences of violence outside of the now-double resourced six areas.

This decision has come as vacancy rates and under-resourcing in the national police service reach all-time highs. At present, the Western Cape sees a shortfall of thousands of SAPS members, with only 16 424 SAPS members remaining in the province – even though SAPS themselves have stated the need for 20 000 members at an absolute minimum, and thousands more as optimal. Of the six precincts to which LEAP will now be deployed, Nyanga and Delft see vacancy rates of 77.13% and 77.50% respectively; the remainder see vacancy rates of more than 80%.

While LEAP was always intended only to act as a force multiplier for the SAPS, resourcing shortfalls on the part of the national police service have increasingly pushed the provincial government to take on what is more and more of a national competency. This reprioritisation is based on both the data surrounding violence in these areas, as well as the necessity not to abandon our communities to a growing trend of the SAPS not providing the necessary resources to fight crime.

DA Western Cape spokesperson on Community Safety Thomas Walters says: “We are glad to see the City of Cape Town and Western Cape Government continuing to follow the data and to allocate their policing resources to where they will be most effective. What we now need is for the South African Police Service to come to the table, and to finally allocate the policing resources which the Western Cape has spent years waiting for. A safer future is possible, but only if the SAPS and national police ministry play their part.”

Issued by Thomas Walters, MPP - DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Community Safety and Police Oversight