COSATU supports POPCRU in fighting crime as City of Cape Town and SAPS waste time 

3 October 2017 

COSATU in the Western Cape is concerned about the killings taking place in Marakana and all over the Cape Flats. The situation on the Cape Flats is out of control, with no solutions being offered. MEC Dan Plato says that people want to be listened to, as if that brings any relief. The army will be shooting pointed ammunition in residential areas, which will see more innocent lives lost, if they are not part of a greater plan.  The Marakana is not the only problem area as all Cape Flats communities are living in war zones, with daily killings.

The reality of the situation is that the loss of hope that people feel must be addressed, including addressing the socio economic situation as a result of high unemployment, poverty and lack of housing for families. The City of Cape Town has overseen a situation of rising unemployment and people without homes, which completely breaks down the social fabric of society.

The City has wasted money on gimmicks like shot spotters and gang mediators, when the fights are for control of the drug trade and economic domination. The gangsters fight for economic domination with bullets, whilst the Apartheid criminals fight for economic domination with lawyers and collusion. We will not be able to address these issues piecemeal, while the other flourishes and people have reduced economic prospects in the town ships. Those who seek to reduce this crisis to just one of managing gangsters are seriously missing the extent and the causes of the problem.

COSATU calls on the different levels of government to collaborate to address the problems in all the communities and to assist the communities to confront the features ,as well as the causes of crime. The fact that gangsters are now targeting community leaders is unacceptable. We need to double the efforts to remove these criminals from society. We need to unify all levels of policing and stop the turf battles, as this just creates the space for criminals to flourish.

The crisis is unfolding in the Cape Flats is largely ignored in respect of funding, while the Mayor uses public funds to improve only her safety, as she constructs her own Inkandla in Pinelands.  JP Smith has used the Metro Police as his own private Army to fight political battles. He once tried to use his resources in Metro Police to target Tony Ehrenreich as the leader of the opposition in the City of Cape Town, because Ehrenreich exposed JP Smiths stupidly in the council meeting. This matter was reported to Dirk Smith the Speaker who just covered up this abuse of state power, as the evidence was overwhelming as Grant Pascoe who was a DA leader then exposed JP Smith’s plans. JP Smith is ensuring that chaos reigns on the Cape Flats as it gives the DA the cover to loot the City purses fro white gains, as can be seen by the City Hall upgrades and the white contractors.

The City not only has the highest killings in the country, but is also the most unsafe city in South Africa. All of which developed under the DA watch over the last 10 years.

Issued by Tony Ehrenreich on behalf of COSATU WC, 3 October 2017