DA planning to file petition to Cele to address Soshanguve ‘policing crisis’
DA leaders, including John Steenhuisen, picketed outside the Soshanguve Police Station on Saturday as part of renewed calls to intensify the fight against crime.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen (L) led a crime awareness picket with the party’s Gauteng head Solly Msimanga (C) and Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink (R) outside the Soshanguve Police Station on 27 January 2024. Picture: X/Our_DA
TSHWANE - The Democratic Alliance (DA) said it was planning to file a petition to Minister of Police Bheki Cele amid calls for better policing in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria.
This followed mounting concerns from the community about the recent spike in violent crimes in the area.
This included a mass shooting where four people were gunned down on New Year's Day, leaving residents in the area on edge.
DA leaders, including John Steenhuisen, picketed outside the Soshanguve Police Station earlier on Saturday as part of renewed calls to intensify the fight against crime.
The DA said it was worried that the high level of crime in Soshanguve had again taken its toll on residents.
The party accused government of failing to address what it labelled a “policing crisis” in the area.
Though more boots hit the ground recently when freshly trained police officers were deployed over the festive season, the DA said the response to lawlessness was still poor.
Steenhuisen also criticised Gauteng’s newly-deployed crime wardens, known as AmaPanyaza.
“Instead of ending cadre deployment into the police, instead of fixing the DNA backlog, instead of ensuring that SAPS [South African Police Service] stops smuggling guns to gangsters, what did Panyaza Lesufi do? He took your tax money to buy ill-fitting PEP Stores uniforms for untrained cadres and pretended that they were 'crime wardens’."
The DA is expected to serve Cele with the petition sometime next week.