Devolve policing, bring back specialised units - Ian Cameron

Cameron joined the leadership of the Democratic Alliance (DA), which included Western Cape Premier Alan Wind, mayoral committee member for safety JP Smith, and party leader John Steenhuisen, on their march to Cele’s Tshwane’s offices where they called for the minister’s removal on Tuesday.  

He’s joined the party’s call for policing to be decentralised from the national government to local authorities. 

“We asked for specialised units to be brought back, we asked for reservist programmes to be brought back. We’ve lost almost 60,000 reservists in less than a decade, and we’ve also asked for the DNA backlog to be solved. We’ve also asked for a skills audit to be done in the senior ranks of the police to determine who was appointed on merit and who was appointed according to political affiliation,” Cameron said.  

The director of community safety at civil group Action Society accuses Cele of turning the police service into a “political chessboard” and depriving the Western. Cape of much-needed resources and manpower.  

This was echoed by JP Smith, who says Cele has frustrated crime-fighting interventions by the city: “Instead of welcoming the help Minister Cele has made every effort in Cape Town to frustrate us. He’s criticised the LEAP officers, he’s questioned their authority…shame on you minister.” 

Party leader, John Steenhuisen says policing needs to be devolved to allow the provision of resources at a local level.  

Marchers did not deliver a memorandum to Cele’s office.

 The minister is currently attending the Cabinet Lekgotla.

Meanwhile, Cele's office has responded to the marchers, saying it wishes the same energy used in the demonstration was directed toward constructive engagement

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