Cape Town - Premier Alan Winde has dismissed the crime statistics released annually by the national police minister as a “history lesson”.
He said this was because they were released a year too late and are not used as a mechanism of how to
deal with what is happening on the ground.
The premier said he felt that the stats should be used to manage the situation.
“Normally, when you have stats you measure, and when you measure you can manage.”
He was contributing to the national annual crime statistics debate introduced by DA MPL Reagen Allen.
Winde revealed that since the military began operations on the Cape Flats, there had been a substantial drop in the murder rate, specifically in the Cape Metro, and across the province.
He said from an average of 70 murders on a payday weekend and 50 on a normal one.
Last payday weekend there were 30 murders and 31 the week before.
Igniting the debate, Allen said the crime statistics had showed that there were fewer crimes reported to the police, and fewer crimes detected by the police during the 2018/2019 reporting period.
He said this was in stark contrast to communities’ sense of safety.
Allen said: “I want to urge communities to continue sending tip-offs on domestic violence, robberies, burglaries, and drug and gang-related crimes, and activities taking place around our public facilities.”
Brett Herron, GOOD MPL, said no debate was necessary to confirm
that crime was out of control and policing alone would not solve the problem.
Reflecting on his time as a councillor in the City of Cape Town, Herron said: “In Cape Town, we attempted to align social development and safety and security to achieve alignment of policing with social services.”
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