Growing levels of violent crime in the OR Tambo District in the Eastern Cape Province, was high on the agenda, during a multi-stakeholder engagement attended by the Police Ministry and top management of the South African Police.
The engagement hosted on Wednesday, 26 July 2023 in Mthatha was initiated by member of Parliament, Honourable Bantu Holomisa, who called for ministerial intervention in the district. The meeting was also attended by the district’s 18 station commanders who engaged with community leaders, business, faith based representatives and other stakeholders, calling for urgent policing interventions in the district to better support policing.
Murder, gender based violence, robberies at both businesses and residences, business extortion, drugs and kidnapping, coupled by policing resource challenges were raised sharply by attendees.
In response, National Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola committed to strengthening policing in identified high crime areas, by assembling a national and provincial operational team to support district level policing.
Police Minister, General Bheki Cele called on a thorough review of resource and personnel capacity of the crime heavy top three stations in the district.
“The issues raised in this meeting must be responded to urgently and vigorously by the police. Part of the solution is to address the drivers of crime through an integrated crime prevention approach with lends support from communities and other quarters of society. Our response to crime must and will address the complaints against the police whilst promoting better working relations with communities. There is also a need for the whole security cluster to descend on this district and attend to some of the shortcomings that exist in the criminal justice system, which at times adversely affects policing” concluded Cele.
The ministerial intervention in the district, will rely on intensified police response and the full implementation of the Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy (ICVPS) which has been spearheaded by the Ministry. The strategy rests on six pillars designed to promote a whole government and whole society approach to fighting crime.
