Minister Fritz Meets with Cape Winelands safety stakeholders

Today, the Minister of Community Safety, Albert Fritz, met with safety stakeholders in the Cape Winelands District Municipality to discuss Provincial Needs and Priorities (PNP) and existing Safety Plans. 

This workshop focussed on:

• Improving safety through effective oversight of policing;
• Making safety everyone’s responsibility; and
• Optimising safety and security risk management.

Minister Fritz said, “The Policing Needs and Priorities or PNP refer to an annual public consultation process facilitated by the Western Cape Department of Community Safety (DoCs) so that the key role players in communities are consulted on their safety and policing needs. What makes this process so effective is that we are joined by various stakeholders in the safety and security environment that are believed to represent the broader population and who have influence over resource allocation.”

Minister Fritz added, “The reason we do this is simple. The Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, is mandated by the Constitution to determine the national policing policy after consulting the provincial governments and taking into account the policing needs and priorities of the provinces. The PNP process assists me as the Minister of Community Safety to determine these needs which are then submitted to Minister Cele. These are then considered when resource allocations are made to provinces.”

It was further iterated that the Cape Winelands District Municipality is mandated to provide coordination and strategic support to the five local municipalities within the area of its jurisdiction. Further that in terms of the Constitution, local government is mandated to promote a safe and healthy environment.

“Municipalities are obliged to dedicate their financial and administrative capacity towards achieving a safe and healthy environment, and to involve communities and community organisations in this process. This Constitutional mandate is further expressed in the Local Government Municipal Systems Act, which obliges the council of a municipality to exercise the municipality's executive and legislative authority and use its resources to promote a safe and healthy environment in the municipality”, said Minister Fritz.

The Department of Community Safety, previously transferred R1 million between 1 December 2018 and 30 November 2019 to enable resilient, sustainable and quality living environments through the operationalisation of the Municipality Safety Plan in the Cape Winelands District Municipality.

“It should be noted that local, provincial and national government are not solely responsible for creating safe environments. Each and every single one of us has a role to play as it will take a whole of society approach to ensure the safety of our province. This means that as parents, teachers, NGOs and good citizens, that if we see crime we must immediately act and report it. Additionally, we should take it upon ourselves to support or volunteer in our local Neighbourhood Watches and Community Policing Forums,” said Minister Fritz.

Under the leadership of Minister Albert Fritz, the Department of Community Safety will continue to use every tool at its disposal to improve the safety of residents in the Western Cape.

Attention broadcasters, please find English audio clip attached.