Maimane suggests millions earmarked for N2 safety wall be used to fight crime

The chairperson of Parliament’s Appropriations Committee, Mmusi Maimane, does not support the City of Cape Town’s plan to spend millions of rand to build a safety wall along the N2.

He said the plan represents a failure to deal adequately with crime and would become a symbol of the past.

Speaking at a cluster briefing in parliament on Monday, chairpersons of the finance committees said they will be paying particular attention to the expenditure of municipalities this year, as National Treasury plans to tighten the grip on grants to ill-performing municipalities.

In a local government election year, how municipalities spend their money and how they deliver on services will be keenly watched.

However, Maimane said he’s vehemently opposed to a controversial plan by the City of Cape Town to cordon off the N2 as a crime-prevention measure.

“I think it entrenches apartheid spatial networking. I certainly think it is a poor way of answering who can go inside the community, and who can go outside the community.”

However, Maimane does agree with his former political home, the Democratic Alliance (DA), which has for years been pushing for the devolution of policing powers for its metro cops - as an alternative to building barriers and to deploying the army to deal with crime.

“We must add them to the SAPS [South African Police Service], increase intelligence and make sure they are available in townships so that we amend the law as to what a metro police can do and we give them investigating powers.”

Maimane added that money to build a wall could be better spent on capacitating crime-fighting efforts.

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