Commissioner Phiyega debunks ANC propaganda on dompas issue

11 March 2015

National Police Commissioner, Riah Phiyega, has confirmed to Parliament's Police Committee today that the "green card" system in Sector 4, Worcester, was enabled by local SAPS management.

Commissioner Phiyega clarified during her testimony to the Committee that the "green cards" were initiated by the local Sector 4 Community Policing Forum (CPF) in collaboration with SAPS, to control access to specified suburbs.

This confirmation by Commissioner Phiyega exposes the ANC who have been driving a false narrative that the DA-run Breede Valley Municipality was complicit in the issuing of these cards.

According to Phiyega, the proposed CPF plan, equivalent to the Apartheid-era dompas system, was agreed to by the ANC-governed SAPS in July 2014 through the acting Sergeant-in-Command at the time.

The Commissioner has now given the Committee an assurance that SAPS has begun a process to withdraw all cards in the public domain.

This admission of responsibility by the head of a national institution controlled by the ANC government fundamentally debunks the ANC's politically-motivated propaganda. 

A stronger factual rebuttal to the ANC's opportunism on this issue would be difficult to imagine.

The remedial steps announced by Commissioner Phiyega are welcome but they cannot undo the violation of rights and damage to dignity that has already happened because of this programme. Action must be taken against SAPS officials directly involved in this dompas system.

The DA reiterates its condemnation of the "green card" project and calls for it to be ended in its entirety. 

Community-based crime prevention must never be used to violate constitutional rights and freedoms or discriminate unfairly against any group of people.

Statement issued by Zakhele Mbhele MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Police, March 11 2015

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