There are only two law enforcement officers patrolling Town Centre daily after eight were supposedly deployed to the transport interchange and central business district (CBD).
This was revealed during a Mitchell’s Plain Area Co-ordinating Team (ACT) meeting on Wednesday November 21 at sub-council chambers, in Lentegeur, where each of the role-players gave feedback on progress in tidying up and improving the shopping and commuting conditions in the Town Centre.
Principal inspector Sharon Harris-Adams, for the City of Cape Town’s law enforcement, said two of the recruited officers were on training and that the other three would only be available mid-December.
“We cannot have members without uniform and the necessary training to be working as officers,” she said.
The Town Centre is one of the City’s Mayoral Urban Regeneration Programme (MURP) fund recipients, which includes the payment of 10 dedicated law enforcement officers.
Solomon Philander, ward councillor for Ward 79 (Mitchell’s Plain CBD, parts of Beacon Valley, parts of Eastridge, parts of Portland), said funds were released during July, and that officers, as a specialised service, are recruited and trained accordingly.
He also commended the property owners and businesses, who have rallied to help make the Town Centre safer by applying for it to be a special rating area, with a central improvement district (CID).
The papers have been filed and Mr Philander is hopeful that they will see improvements in July next year.
He also said that the MURP will be supporting the recruitment of 30 safety volunteers, from the community police forum (CPF), neighbourhood watch, street committees and walking bus members, to start working on Saturday December 1 as part of the festive season safety plan.
Metro police closed-circuit television (CCTV) analyst, Jonathan van As, confirmed that only two of the 33 cameras in the Town Centre were not working.
“They are not working because of vandalism. The cables have been stolen,” he said.
He called on the public to report crime in the central
business district to the police,
to whom they will share video footage.
Mr Van As said they are also creating profiles of repeat offenders, who think they may be getting
away but their faces have been captured.