House Chairperson, may I arrest your attention to the fact that crime is getting worse in the Northern Cape and the SAPS is failing our vulnerable rural communities. Violent crime in the Brandvlei area has significantly escalated. A local resident was recently hacked to death in her home, and just three weeks ago, a teenage girl stepped her mother to death.
Last Saturday evening, a young woman took her life in a cell in Williston, the fourth suicide at that station. Last year, the provincial police commissioner promised that the towns of Brandvlei, Middelpos and Sutherland would all receive additional vehicles. It is now 18 months later, and there has been no improvement.
Crime prevention is hampered due to inoperative vehicles, continuous mechanical repairs and maintenance. Bradvlei has only a single police van which they borrow from a nearby town. The van from Middelpos was in for repairs from January until April, and only after a week on the province's rural roads, it was back in for repairs. So, there is no police van in Middelpos. It is the same in
Sutherland, where a single van spends more time in for repairs and not being utilised than on the road.
The DA has held precedence with the petition, which scores for visible policing. We need more vehicles, and better ones than the current GWM ones that are being procured by the SAPS. According to the current year annual performance plan, APP, proper vehicles and restoring communities to trust the police are ministerial priorities. But this speaks 1000 voters ... [Time expired.] ... can I even ...
Afrikaans:
"Hugo, bel die polisie!"
English:
... for the police cannot simply come. [Laughter.]