'Urgent police devolution amid SAPS crisis needed'

PARLIAMENT’S Police Portfolio Committee chairperson, Ian Cameron, has hinted that the DA would formally propose the devolution of policing powers to the Western Cape in its upcoming engagements with the Acting Minister of Police, Firoz Cachalia.

- MANDILAKHE TSHWETE

He was speaking at the Cape Town Press Club yesterday during a discussion on the allegations made by KZN Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.

He said the growing rot within the SAPS, coupled with public distrust and ongoing instability, had amplified the urgency of decentralising policing.

“The rot that’s being exposed at SAPS and the uncertainty and the lack of trust from the public just shows how important the devolution argument really is. We need to decentralise. We need to make sure we create local detective capacity under metro police and Western Cape provincial authorities,” Cameron said.