Please find attached an Afrikaans and an English soundbite by the DA Western Cape Premier Candidate, Alan Winde.
Today, I joined DA Team One SA spokesperson on Crime, John Steenhuisen and Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, at the Hout Bay small boat harbour to discuss our plan to extend coastal patrols in the Western Cape.
Dealing with crime along our coast is the responsibility of the national government, both through SAPS and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. But the ANC government does not provide enough officers to patrol the coast and secure our province’s coastline. Without sufficient patrols, criminal syndicates are free to operate along the shore.
Drugs are brought into the country through unmonitored landing sites, from where they spread through the community and put our people at risk. The Western Cape has the highest number of drug-related crimes reported by SAPS, and the number is growing fast. Drugs are destroying our communities and are the mainstay of violent gangs
While drugs rob our people of their safety, poachers rob them of our province’s natural resources. The theft of abalone in particular has escalated dramatically over the past decade. Criminal syndicates strip this resource from coastal waters, stealing around R628 million from South Africa each year. These syndicates are closely linked to drugs, which they trade the abalone for.
While only the national government is allowed to protect our greater territorial waters, municipalities do have the power to patrol the water close to the shore.
This is why the City of Cape Town created the Marine and Environmental Law Enforcement Unit in 2013, to tackle crime along the City’s 300km of coastline. They have had incredible successes tackling poaching and other crimes near to and on the shoreline.
In the past year alone, they have made 45 arrests, patrolled nearly 4 900 coastal areas, and confiscated over 14 500 poached marine resources. Criminal gangs are finding it much harder to operate in the City’s waters as a result.
The DA in the Western Cape will build partnerships, between the provincial government and coastal municipalities to establish coastal patrol units to patrol beachfront waters, to secure them against poachers and drug-smugglers. Criminals must know that they are not welcome here.
Where the ANC fails to provide for the people of the Western Cape, the DA will fight to keep our residents safe. Only the DA has a plan to secure our provincial coastline and protect our natural resources for all South Africans.