Cape Town - Police Minister Bheki Cele said the justice, crime prevention and security cluster (JCPS) will soon be visiting the Western Cape, after complaints from police that the majority of people arrested for GBV and Femicide (GBVF) were released on bail, only to commit other crimes again.
“We agreed to go to the Western Cape to meet the security cluster (there).
“Police raised their frustration to say ‘what do we do next’,” Cele said when he was responding to questions from MPs, when SAPS presented their budget and annual performance plan.
“In the last quarter, 4 552 people were arrested in the Western Cape for GBVF and out of that, 4 050 are out on bail for GBVF,” he said.
Cele also said of 270 people arrested with firearms, 214 were out on bail.
Responding to another question on what it would take SAPS to fight crime, Cele said the question from NFP MP Munzoor Shaik Emam was “pregnant”.
He said the special units – tactical response units and others with a R2 billion budget – took less of the police budget than the public order policing unit (POP).
He said the POP was spending a lot of time fighting failures by sister departments.
“Almost every morning, there are about 20 protests around the country for water, electricity and potholes.
“Police spend a lot of money and energy fighting things that would have been better addressed by sister departments.
“If all of us can do our work in the different departments … if people do their work, it will really reduce the work of the police,” Cele said.
Also answering questions on working conditions of the officers, national police commissioner Fannie Masemola confirmed that metros and the private sector were poaching officers from SAPS with better salaries and benefits.
“Poaching by metros, we try to improve our salaries and other privileges like we did with danger allowance.
“Unfortunately, we can't match the private sector or other metros because they offer quite big packages,” Masemola said.
He, however, said some of the officers that left SAPS for greener pastures were not always finding the grass greener on the other side.
“It is tough to compete with the private sector in certain instances,” he added.
Cape Times