The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape has reiterated our call on the South African Police Services (SAPS) in the province to provide a report on the functionality of all Community Policing Forums (CPF) and Community Safety Forums (CSF).
This follows the recent spate in crime within the Beaconsfield community in Kimberley, where a female SAPS official was recently assaulted in an altercation with community members. In a separate incident, a young woman was allegedly kidnapped after reportedly being attacked by three men wielding knives. That same week, thieves also allegedly sped off with a high value vehicle in broad daylight in the vicinity of Beaconsfield.
There is an active case against the perpetrator for assaulting the female SAPS official, the kidnapped woman was found and the vehicle was retrieved. The valuable role played by local CPF’s and neighbourhood watch groups in the positive outcomes achieved, cannot be understated. It is, however, becoming increasingly clear that SAPS needs to re-examine its provincial approach, if it wants to win the battle against lawlessness in communities. Even more so as we are nearing the festive season.
While we wait for the latest crime statistics to be released, we remain concerned that the Northern Cape was the only province to record increases in murder and contact crime for the first three months of this year. The province was also among the only three provinces to report increases for assault GBH and common assault and reflected a sharp increase in kidnapping for this same period.
These statistics leave little hope for the outstanding, upcoming crime statistics meant to have been released last week. We will therefore again request that SAPS appears before the legislature committee on safety, to brief the legislature on mechanisms put in place to safeguard Kimberley and the greater Northern Cape.
To get to grips with the crime challenges faced in Beaconsfield, the DA will also join the Beaconsfield CPF on a safety patrol, amidst concerns of escalating crime in this neighbourhood.
The DA will keep on fighting for SAPS to overhaul the current approach to community safety in the Northern Cape, especially as our province is slowly becoming a cesspool of lawlessness and big city crimes.