The Democratic Alliance (DA) will through its spokesperson on Community Safety, Freddy Sonakile, MPL, write to the MEC for Community Safety and Transport, Sello Lehari, to urgently engage with the Mafikeng municipality to address the safety concerns that are due to non-functional street lights.
Criminals sabotage the streetlights to continue with their criminal activities (See photo here). The dark streets of Mahikeng have become a breeding ground for various criminal activities, including the selling and abuse of illegal substances, break-ins, robberies, assault and rape.
There is a lack of support from the Department of Community Safety to the various Community Policing Forum (CPF) that are forced to assume the responsibility of keeping the community safe as the SAPS fail to keep people safe.
CPF members, where possible, make use of their resources to patrol the streets, but poorer communities simply cannot afford to. More needs to be done to empower the CPF to increase visibility and patrolling.
The people of Mahikeng have lost faith in the SAPS to such an extent that they no longer open criminal cases. This affects the overall crime statistics giving a skewed picture of the crime rate which in turn affects the resources allocated to all police stations that fall under the Mahikeng Local Municipality.
The DA has noted MEC Lehari’s announcement that the CCTV Camera Network in the CBD will be revived and submitted questions on how this project will be implemented to curb crime even in the far-flung rural areas.
As a short-term solution, the DA submitted a list of all non-functioning streetlights in the Mafikeng area to the Municipal Manager of Mahikeng Local Municipality, Mike Mokgwamme, and requested him to urgently initiate plans to fix the broken street lights for the safety of residents. See the letter here.
Residents have a right to be protected from crime and live in a safe environment, the ANC is failing to ensure this.
Where the DA governs we prioritise community safety by ensuring that broken street lights are attended to timeously, and we increase police visibility in communities to deter criminal activities.