Cape Town - The Community Safety department will provide rewards of up to R5000 to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and successful conviction of perpetrators in gang-related killings.
This is according to the Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz who made the announcement on Thursday.
Fritz said that information can be given confidentially to the department at 021 483 5220. Alternatively, members of the public can also email Police.Oversight@westerncape.gov.za.
The information will then be passed on to the South African Police Service.
He said that this initiative will further support the Western Cape’s response to the scourge of gangsterism facing our vulnerable communities.
The Community Safety department and SAPS jointly hosted a workshop on the provincial response to the National Anti-Gang Strategy.
“The Western Cape Safety Plan and the Recovery Plan already incorporates elements of the Provincial Response, and this is currently being implemented through the Area-Based Team approach in priority police precincts. There is also much synergy with the Safer Cities Initiative currently underway,” Fritz said.
The workshop brought together criminal justice and provincial role-players and included senior representatives from the SAPS, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Department of Justice, the City of Cape Town (metro and law enforcement), the South African National Defence Force, the Department of Correctional Services and the provincial departments of health, education, human settlements, transport and public works, cultural affairs and sport, and economic development and tourism.
The workshop supported an integrated response involving key stakeholders, including civil society and the business sector.
Fritz concluded that “the time for us to come together as a whole of society is now”.
“We need to fight this scourge of gangsterism and violence together. I appeal to anybody with information that will assist the SAPS to please come forward.”