Cape Town - Premier Alan Winde’s safety plan has been attacked by the ANC in the province for being silent on organised crime and the role that this plays in the incidents of violence, murder and other crimes in communities.
ANC provincial finance and economic opportunities spokesperson Nomi Nkondlo said the safety plan omits any discussion on poaching, and its connection with the drug trade.
Nkondlo’s comments on what she called the political economy of crime in the province sparked a lively debate in the legislature.
“At the outset, let us dispel any myths that may exist.
“The safety plan, as championed by the premier and his so-called Safety Cabinet, does not consider the political economy of crime.”
Engaging in the debate, Winde quoted a number of academic papers on the subject and said the political economy of crime could also be explained through the socio-ecological model of crime and violence reduction.
Winde said the issue had been discussed at a Cabinet lekgotla he’d attended where the recent crime statistics were debated.
He said that the main drivers of the political economy of crime were the absence of state enforcement.
“In other words, no management, no plan and no direction from a national level.”
The debate was briefly derailed when ANC MPL Gladys Bakubaku-Vos interjected with the word “nonsense” while Winde was speaking.
As deputy chief whip Deidré Baartman asked speaker Masizole Mnqasela to check Hansard, Bakubaku-Vos repeated the word, forcing the speaker to call for order.
No sooner had Mnqasela said he would make a determination on the use of the word at the next session of the legislature than DA MPL Christopher Fry rose to say that he had heard Bakubaku-Vos use the Xhosa word “suka” (go away) and asked whether it was derogatory.
Mnqasela told him that the word was not derogatory.
Meanwhile, the legislature on Thursday announced the establishment of a 15-member all-party ad hoc committee to conduct oversight over the provincial executive’s response to TB-related matters.
This brings the Western Cape in line with other provinces such as Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West, which have already launched their TB caucuses.
The establishment of the committee was contained in a motion brought by provincial DA health spokesperson Wendy Kaizer-Philander.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za