Dan Plato wants an apology from the provincial police head after Lamoer reportedly accused Plato of "lying".
|||Community Safety MEC Dan Plato has demanded an apology from General Arno Lamoer, after the provincial police head was reported to have accused Plato of “lying”.
In the Cape Argus’s sister newspaper Cape Times on Thursday, Lamoer is quoted accusing Plato of lying - after Plato presented statistics showing a dire shortage of police at many of Cape Town’s worst crime suburbs.
Plato told journalists on Wednesdaythat he had obtained the statistics from Lamoer’s office, but the general hit out, denying he had sent any such information.
SAPS spokesman Colonel Andre Traut said this morning that Lamoer was not prepared to speak on the issue to the Cape Argus.
On Thursday, Plato showed the actual letter he had been sent, presented on an SAPS letterhead, signed and dated by the Provincial Commissioner’s office. The subject line reads: “POLICE TO POPULATION RATIOS”.
Plato has now demanded “a full apology for the slanderous comments against me.
“The people of the Western Cape deserve to know what is happening in terms of their safety, and our hard-working police officers need the support and necessary resources to do their jobs more effectively, without it they too are vulnerable,” Plato said.
“Section 206 of the South African Constitution states that each province is entitled to oversee the effectiveness and the efficiency of the police service, including receiving reports on the police service.
“Democracy is about effective oversight, accountability, and transparency. And after failing to respond to two requests over two months from my office for information on what the SAPS is doing to address this problem I have little choice but to take additional steps to get these answers, that is why I have asked the Standing Committee to take the matter further.”
The national police commissioner has been asked to appear in person before the Western Cape parliament to explain what appears to be a critical shortage of policemen at crime hot spots.
And if General Riah Phiyega does not agree to appear and explain, she will be ordered to do so. This was the request yesterday, and then the threat, made by the head of the Western Cape legislature’s portfolio committee on safety, former community safety MEC Mark Wiley.
It comes after the news that thousands of Cape Town’s most vulnerable citizens are having to fend for themselves against rampant crime in their areas because of a dire shortage of police. The national South African average for police coverage is one policeman for every 330 people.
But in some of Cape Town’s most crime-ridden suburbs, there are as few as one policeman per 3 000 people.
The figures were officially obtained by Community Safety MEC Dan Plato from the provincial commissioner’s office, and Plato is dismayed by the results.
“The 20 police stations with the worst police-to-population ratios are, without fail, the stations which are notorious for high levels of crime.”
In response to the statistics, Wiley said: “For some two years now the committee has endeavoured to get clarity, without success.”
His chief concern is the minimum service level standards of “visible policing” at station level.
These units are the police people see on the street and are the first responders to almost every crime scene.
“Yet, by admission of the provincial commissioner’s office, the unit is under strength even by the 2004 census figures, and is due to get even smaller.”
Wiley said the provincial commissioner had repeatedly been asked to explain but on every occasion he, or his deputies, had admitted they were all nationally-driven policies - hence the decision by the committee to invite the national commissioner.
“I would be loathe to send a sheriff with a summons to Pretoria… I am sure that this will not be necessary,” Wiley said.
Annelize van Wyk MP, chairwoman of the portfolio committee on police, said in response to Plato’s figures that the methodology for compiling the statistics was deeply problematic.
“First, to reach the national average and the provincial averages, they include a whole range of police staff types – such as your staff at national and provincial offices, and involved in logistics, administration, management, support services, etcetera – not always found at station level.
“So you cannot simply compare individual police stations’ figures and match them against a provincial average.”
Van Wyk said the most effective analytical tool to use was the Resource Allocation Guide, which the police used to determine how many policemen to send where.
This guide was itself outdated and her committee had repeatedly urged the police to update it with the latest census data to ensure a proper spread of police.
But she added: “Policing is not simply a numbers issue. I would urge Mr Plato not to opportunistically simplify a far more complex issue.”
Cape Argus