By Lee-Yandra Paulsen
The Western Cape Government were provided with new police vehicles earlier this month to combat crime in the province.
Western Cape Minister for Police Oversight and Community Safety, Reagan Allen spoke to VOC Breakfast on Friday morning about crime prevention in the province as well as the SAPS vehicles that were handed over to the province police.
“The crime stats will be released in the next two weeks, and I am positive that we are going to see a reduction in the murder rate across the province,” said Allen.
The minister said that the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (Leap) officers’ deployment into murder hotspots has made a significant difference as murder rates within the country have increased by 26.1%. According to Allen the Western Cape has seen a decrease in the murder rate because of the Community Policing Forum’s (CPF), neighbourhood watch and Law enforcement all working together to fight crime.
Minister Allen said that in January this year in a National Council of Provinces (NCOP) briefing he was told the Western Cape only received 14.8% of the police vehicles ordered for the province. Allen then took this matter up with the National Minister, National Commissioner together with the Provincial commission to ensure all the vehicles for the provinces gets delivered.
“We can now confirm that all the vehicles ordered for the Western Cape was delivered. The full number of vehicles that we’ve seen on the ground in the province is 362 vehicles. The 250 vehicles that was on showcase in Mitchells Plain was a part of the 362 vehicles received for the financial year, and it is for the entire province,” the minister said.
Allen stated although police have received all these cars, they are still severely under resourced in terms of vehicles.
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