Community Safety
With reference to the meeting held on 16 October 2020 where it was agreed to convene a transversal steering committee on organised crime:
(a) What were the shortcomings identified during this meeting that led to the agreement and (b) what is the role of the provincial government in this agreement?
(a) The challenges identified includes the fact that cases are under-reported due to victims of organised crime not reporting cases such as extortion. It was agreed that a media campaign would be launched to create public awareness to stop the scourge of organised crime. Secondly, the absence of a nodal point to report cases was also identified as a challenge, as organised crime perpetrators operated across police station boundaries.
(b) The provincial government and in particular the Department of Community Safety is embarking on a provincial-wide awareness campaign on all available social media platforms to encourage victims of organised crime to report cases. The campaign intends targeting individuals, institutions and businesses to report cases in order for SAPS operations to be conducted. The Department will also monitor cases at courts through its Court Watching Brief unit to ensure SAPS inefficiencies are timeously detected and addressed.
