The Community Safety Bill recently passed in the Western Cape will improve oversight of police, says Community Safety MEC Dan Plato.
|||Cape Town - The Community Safety Bill recently passed in the Western Cape legislature will improve oversight of police, an official said on Thursday.
“The bill is not about controlling the police, it’s about improving oversight and making the SA Police Service more efficient by working with them,” said Greg Wagner, spokesman for Community Safety MEC Dan Plato.
Twenty three of 36 provincial legislature members voted in favour of the bill on Wednesday.
During the debate, Plato said approval of the bill was an historic moment for oversight legislation, not only in the province but for the whole country.
“What the bill seeks to do is to regulate the activities of the province, setting out how we should be performing oversight over the police in order to give effect to constitutional provisions, to clarify what oversight means in a practical way, and how the Western Cape government should be fulfilling this oversight responsibility,” he said.
According to the Cape Argus, ANC MPL Khaya Magaxa said the bill would create “inter-governmental conflict” between the national and provincial departments.
The bill has been sent to provincial premier Helen Zille and is expected to be signed into law in the next two weeks. - Sapa