Cachalia vows monthly reports on Cape Town anti-gang plan

Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia has pledged to share monthly reports with Parliament to monitor the success of the new strategy to combat gangsterism in Cape Town.

Presenting the strategic plan to the Select Committee on Security and Justice on Wednesday, Cachalia admitted that it still contained some gaps and "grey areas" that require further consideration.

The plan comes a month after Cachalia visited Cape Town to assess the extent of the gang problem. He informed the Select Committee that the anti-gangs plan has received substantial funding from the Criminal Assets Recovery Account.

Cachalia stated he will require police leadership to report back monthly on the plan's implementation.

"I’m prepared to share that report with the committee, and you can call the provincial commissioner, because if we don’t have that monitoring, we won’t know whether we are succeeding," he said.

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However, the Acting Minister stressed that the Provincial Government also needs to step up to address the societal issues that are fueling the violence.

Cachalia also highlighted several critical matters that the strategy must still address, such as the flood of police guns into communities and the effective monitoring of parolees.

He expressed concern about the concentration of gang leaders within prisons, noting, "What we should do about the concentration of arrests in the prisons, because then it’s easy for them to communicate about assassination instructions and all of that that come from the prisons."

To address the issue of released criminals, Cachalia said he is in favor of the permanent electronic monitoring of violent criminals who are released on parole.