Landslide vote for new police bill

Cape Town - The Western Cape government will soon have greater oversight over the province’s men and women in blue after 23 of 36 MPLs on Wednesday voted in favour of the Western Cape Community Safety Bill.

The bill, once enacted, will give provincial authorities the power to:

* Call for the removal, transfer or disciplinary action against the provincial police commissioner.

* Investigate complaints of police inefficiency.

* Assess the effectiveness of visible policing, among other things.

The bill has been sent to Premier Helen Zille after being approved in the legislature. It is expected to be signed into law in two weeks.

After a debate on the bill, which was rejected by the ANC and “partially accepted” by Cope, deputy Speaker Piet Pretorius called for a division of the house.

The DA (22 members) and the African Christian Democratic Party (one member) approved the bill, while all 13 ANC members rejected the legislation. Cope’s three members left the chamber before the vote.

Apart from giving the province greater oversight over the police, the bill also allows the Western Cape government to determine its own policing needs and priorities.

“Today is a historic day because for the first time in our democracy we have legislated on provincial oversight over the police,” said Community Safety MEC Dan Plato.

Plato said incidents of police brutality, corruption and the “shoot to kill” rhetoric from police top brass “did not paint a picture of a police service that was envisioned for a democratic South Africa”.

“Oversight remains critical… effective oversight can act as a catalyst for improved policing,” he said.

“We want to know, for example: how many issued firearms were lost and stolen and how many arrests resulted in a prosecution and of those, how many convictions were secured.”

The bill also proposes the creation of a provincial police ombudsman to investigate complaints about police inefficiency and a breakdown in relations between the community and police.

Plato said that safety concerns differed from province to province and that there was no “one-size-fits-all approach” to crime.

“With this in mind, we are trying to improve the identification of the policing needs and priorities of our communities. We want to make this process more effective and holistic, but also more transparent by requiring that it be debated regularly in a multi-party forum in the Provincial Parliament.”

ANC MPL Khaya Magaxa said the bill would create “inter-governmental conflict” between the national and provincial departments.

“This bill has nothing to do with safety, but is rather about doing away with the provincial commissioner,” Magaxa said.

Cope MPL Mbulelo Ncedana said he supported the bill “in part” and warned that it should not be used to wage political battles.

ACDP MPL Grant Haskin said: “We support this bill and dedicate it to all the victims of crime and the victims of lost dockets.”

[email protected]

Cape Argus