Western Cape Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen said on Friday that his province is determined to fight crime despite recent quarterly crime statistics which revealed that 39 children have been murdered in his province since January.

Speaking to Polity, he said although his province is seeing a reduction in murders in the quarterly crime stats, he wants to see no murders in the province owing to flare-ups between gang members.

He said a suspect, who allegedly shot a nine-year-old two weeks ago, has been arrested.

When asked about the recent move to beef up Neighbourhood Watch personnel in problem areas to support the South African Police Service (Saps) and the City’s Law Enforcement Advancement Plan in Delft, he said Saps cannot fight crime alone and relies on community activism and stakeholders to work hand-in-hand with government.

“In Delft, we had engagements with the Saps and the Department of Social Development as they play a key role in the fight against gender-based violence, which is also an evil in our society, but also [with] the launch of anti-gender-based violence ambassadors. Besides us working with our communities and safety stakeholders, we are working across our government. In some places we are going to ramp up partnership and cooperation,” said Allen.

He commended the support his office is receiving from 17 500 community Neighbourhood Watch volunteers in the Community Policing Forums who are fighting to reduce crime within their communities.

There has been a reduction in the amount of home and vehicle break-ins owing to more security personnel on the ground.

Allen urged more communities to actively sign up to fight crime.

In addition, the province is also introducing sporting programmes to keep teenagers away from drugs and gangsterism.

The province has relaunched a programme to collect illegal firearms. Those who comply will receive a reward of R5 000.

Eighteen illegal firearms were collected in June and Allen is urging more people to anonymously report information on illegal weapons via 021 466 00 11.  

“We want to make sure that the illegal firearms that are tormenting our communities are not in the hands of the gangsters and children that are being used by gangsters to perpetuate crime,” he said. 

The province continues to advocate for the devolution of policing powers as Allen believes that the current policing method is no longer working.

“From 1994 we have had the same system where policing is at a national level. We all know that the policing system in our country has sadly failed. We have been calling for the devolution of powers and that call is now resonating with other provinces. The Premier of Gauteng has been advocating for a new policing model. It is the same thing that we are asking for,” he stressed.