Why the Western Cape’s LEAP Officers are Urgently Needed in Gauteng Townships like Diepsloot
In August of last year, the DA-run Western Cape announced it would be deploying an additional 100 provincial safety officers to the streets of Cape Town. This would be on top of the existing 1000 safety officers recruited and trained under the province’s Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP). LEAP, being the province’s integrated strategy to prevent and combat criminal activity, namely petty crime on the streets and crimes committed by organised gangs.
Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde and his team, indicated that this was a logical choice to make given the fact that LEAP officers had arrested over 1 400 suspects between April 4th and July 3rd of that year. At the time they had already enacted 8 500 arrests since the programme’s inception and their initial deployment in early 2020. LEAP officers have come to represent the Western Cape’s response to gangsterism and rampant crime in disadvantaged communities.
While the South African Police Service is under-capacitated and under-resourced, the DA has stepped in with solution-oriented interventions to curb crime and actively fight gangsterism and drug trafficking. While the narrative in the Western Cape has turned towards a focus on addressing the social determinants of social deviancy, delinquency, and criminal activity; the province has accepted that combatting crime head-on is also key to saving lives and keeping streets safe.
I believe the state has certain key responsibilities, one of which is protecting citizens from theft, trauma, injury, and death. Unfortunately, the Gauteng provincial government is failing when it comes to this basic duty — notably in townships and informal settlements across the province.
Diepsloot, a township in northern Joburg, has seen a wave of shootings and violent crime reminiscent of the vile gangsterism evident in the Western Cape. Residents in this township and surrounding areas have undergone immense trauma and heartache as they are cruelly shot and stabbed in the streets and in their own homes. This year alone the communities of Diepsloot experienced a spate of murders, violent robberies, and ATM bombings.
Vigilantism has become rife and illegal immigrants are blamed for the daily sexual assaults, muggings, and house burglaries. SAPS officers and metro police are accused of colluding and collaborating with drug dealers and traffickers and allegedly solicit bribes from gangsters and construction mafias.
With each spate of murders comes protest action led by the Diepsloot Community Forum accompanied by calls for the President himself to intervene and address affected communities. Unfortunately, the cries of these communities over the years have been blatantly and cruelly ignored, with promises of increased police presence and the deployment of tactical teams (the so-called ‘Amaberete’) being made to community leaders.
A new Diepsloot police station was built in 2016, it is however, under-capacitated and ill-equipped to deal with the scourge of criminal activity operating in some extensions of Diepsloot and across northern Joburg. Police Minister Bheki Cele brought the police’s national operation ‘Operation Shanela’ to Diepsloot, which resulted in 60 illegal immigrants being detained and a few arrests being made (as well as some brothels and drug dens being raided). While this is commended and welcomed, it simply is not enough. Not enough is being done to bolster crime intelligence or to infiltrate organised crime. Neither women nor child is safe on the street — day or night.
Gauteng has seen an increase in crime and according to the 2022/23 crime statistics the province currently contributes 27,2% to South Africa’s overall crime rate. The statistics for January to March 2023 show that 582 people were killed in the City of Johannesburg, with a staggering 20 of those taking place in Diepsloot alone. Without requisite support from national and provincial government, police officers (who do not have enough vehicles) and patrollers from the Community Policing Forum risk their lives day and night protecting the residents of Diepsloot. The same can be said of many other townships and informal settlements across Joburg.
Integrated policing operations and specialised policing functions are wholly missing in Gauteng and there is no integrated cross-functional safety strategy like the Western Cape’s Law Enforcement Advancement Plan.
Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi, has recently introduced the provincial safety wardens. Two years after the deployment of LEAP officers in the Western Cape. The wardens are poorly trained and clearly ill-equipped to deal with social deviancy and criminal activity. The wardens do not have bullet-proof vests, battons, or firearms. They have been provided with tacky green overalls and berets but nothing to keep themselves and their communities safe.
Unlike LEAP officers, Gauteng’s wardens are not trained in deescalating conflict; assisting victims of domestic abuse or substance abuse; investigating druglords; or, putting together statements and dockets that ultimately lead to the prosecution and imprisonment of hardened criminals. Furthermore, there are already allegations of wardens abusing their powers, soliciting bribes and sexual favours, and harassing innocent people.
Ultimately one could infer that the ANC-run provincial government has put the lives of both wardens and communities at risk, all in a bid to garner votes ahead of the 2024 national and provincial elections.
Since July this year the Western Cape’s LEAP officers made numerous arrests (1 098 in July alone) and confiscated numerous firearms that could potentially have been used to kill and maim, not only fellow criminals, but also innocent residents and bystanders. The work of LEAP officers, working closely with immigration officers, environmental and building inspectors, and specialised metro police units, is paying off. Between January and March of this year, the Western Cape saw a 14,1% reduction in the murder rate — with a decrease of 9,6% in Mfuleni and a 26,5% decrease in Khayelitsha.
It’s not just communities and municipalities in the DA-run Western Cape that benefit from the DA’s laser focus on upholding law and order. The DA-run uMngeni municipality in KwaZulu Natal built offices for their municipal law enforcement officers and procured new vehicles. These traffic and safety officers assist police officers with road blocks and work to prevent criminality and the infringement of municipal by-laws. The formerly DA-run Nelson Mandela Bay metro in the Eastern Cape also benefits from a metro police service established by the former DA-led administration.
DA-run governments are filling the void left by national government — they are investing in localised law enforcement and ensuring well-trained safety officers work closely with neighbourhood watches and support SAPS officers and detectives in preventing crime on the streets. In fact, the Western Cape government announced in May of this year that R10 million has been set aside for the establishment of LEAP stations that will support and house LEAP officers.
Crime is out of control in cities and towns across Gauteng and we need to adopt, implement, and monitor the Western Cape’s safety interventions that have been successful in curbing violent crime and drug trafficking. Evidently, this is only possible under a new administration in the Gauteng provincial government.
For branding and awareness purposes Gauteng’s safety officers may need a different title and programme name when they are introduced. Whatever they’re called, they certainly need to leap into action and protect vulnerable communities from violent crime and trauma.
The killings need to end.
Image attribution:
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