Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has warned that she’s on the verge of approaching courts after Police Minister Bheki Cele called on the Democratic Alliance to stop politicising crime.
Zille had written a letter to Cele asking him to fulfill 2017 promises by his predecessor‚ Fikile Mbalula, to send soldiers to the Cape Flats where gangster-related crime is escalating.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane led a march to the Nyanga police station last week to demand the deployment of soldiers to the Cape Flats.
Zille says she will be forced to take action if nothing is done after her meeting with Cele on Monday.
“I’m at a point where I want to take legal action if the problem is never remedied by the powers that be. I’m seeing Minister Cele today. There are times that a civil authority loses control over the entire area. That’s often the case in Manenberg where we can’t deliver services. You cannot even put fibre into the ground to connect the schools to broadband because the gangs say that unless you pay them protection money, people who come service and lay that fibre are not allowed in the area.”
Cele has accused Zille of contradicting herself in the way she’s dealing with the issue.
“It was Helen Zille who was leading the good work of the South Africa police and praising them. Why today is she not saying the same thing, that the job is good. They have sustained and maintained the order in that area. 154 police have been put there. We have promised extra if they are needed.”
