WC DA: SAPS severely under-resourced to effectively tackle gang violence in province

CAPE TOWN - The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Western Cape says the SAPS is severely under-resourced to effectively tackle gang violence in the province.

Gang-related shootings in the Western Cape have left more than 800 people dead in the past year.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and other DA officials have written to the Department of Justice and Acting Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia to change legislation that will allow municipal police to investigate crime.

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Winde said there were only 12,908 SAPS members in the Western Cape.

Winde said this was a 22% reduction from the 16,224 a year ago.

The premier said that detectives in the province had a case load of up to 200 a year, leading to poor conviction rates.

"So we've got diminishing police numbers but we've got escalating crime and a growing population and those two correlate and we actually need to make sure that we get more resources for our policing."

Winde said there were more than 4,000 municipal police officers ready to fill the gap.