This article first appeared in the 29 June 2022 edition of the Cape Argus newspaper.
Cape Town - Premier Alan Winde has again said he believed there was a firm constitutional basis for the devolution of policing to the provincial sphere.
He said this would enable the province to exercise policing powers beyond mere monitoring and oversight, which has to date been the norm.
Winde was responding to a written question from DA chief whip Lorraine Botha earlier in the week, who wanted to know what the advantages of more localised authority over policing resources were, and how much such a transfer of power would cost.
Botha also asked how the provincial government would be able to build up the capacity to take over policing in the province.
Winde was unable to provide details of the cost, but said this step would follow once the legal and constitutional frameworks for devolution had been put in place.
“Funds would be required to shift from the national government in tandem with the reassignment of the function,” he said.
With regard to capacity, Winde said their Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) programme had already built up some capacity.
“Our area-based deployment approach has yielded significant successes, bringing down the crime rates in key hotspots such as Nyanga, which is no longer the murder capital of South Africa.”
Last year Winde and Police Minister Bheki Cele clashed during a debate on the issue of the devolution of policing powers to the provinces, after Winde said the time had come for the SAPS to be devolved to the Western Cape as this would ensure the province a greater say over what resources were allocated to them, when and how.
Cele said: “The Constitution says the security services of the Republic consist of a single defence force, a single police service and any intelligence service established in terms of the Constitution.”
Cele said the national government would be forging ahead with the full implementation of the ideals of the single policing service, as directed by the Constitution.