DA renews bid to control policing in Western Cape

The Democratic Alliance again called for the devolution of policing powers to the Western Cape, arguing that the centralised control of the South African Police Service (SAPS) has failed people plagued by violent crime, particularly on the Cape Flats.

This renewed push follows remarks made by billionaire businessman Johann Ruper during a meeting between a South African delegation led by President Cyril Ramaphosa and United States President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week.

Rupert described the Cape Flats as the epicentre of South Africa’s violent crime problem and endorsed the idea of provinces taking greater control over policing functions. He also advocated for the use of advanced technologies such as Starlink — a satellite internet system developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX — to boost real-time communication, surveillance and modernise crime fighting in neglected areas.

The DA, which controls the Western Cape, has bristled at Rupert’s comments, which were meant to convey that crime affects all parts of South Africa, including what is arguably the best-run province in the country.

“He [Rupert] knows full well that the criminal justice system … is in the control of the national state,” said the party’s spokesperson on policing, Ian Cameron, who also chairs parliament’s portfolio committee on police.

Cameron called Rupert’s comments “misleading” and said it was “completely false” that the DA controlled the police in the Western Cape, calling for policing powers to be devolved to the province.

Barely two days after the Oval Office meeting, in which Trump accused South Africa of perpetrating a “white genocide”, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu released the country’s latest crime statistics, which showed that nearly 90% of the country’s gang murders occur in the Western Cape.

The DA’s renewed calls on policing powers follow years of advocacy for decentralised policing, which the party scaled up after the 2012 Khayelitsha commission of inquiry exposed systemic failures of the police service in high-crime areas such as that township.

Former police minister Bheki Cele publicly dismissed the proposal, asserting that it would require amendments to the Constitution, particularly to section 205, which establishes the SAPS as a national competency. 

But the DA argues that such powers can be devolved without constitutional overhaul, pointing to section 206(4) of the Constitution, which allows provincial governments to “monitor police conduct” and “promote good relations between the police and the community”.

According to Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, the national government’s inability to invest in modern policing tools has left local officers under-equipped and overstretched.

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis wants the city’s metro police to be given powers to investigate crime, and has also requested that the metropolitan government be granted more authority to determine policing priorities.

Hill-Lewis told a recent media briefing that Rupert’s comments should not be dismissed but rather seen as a wake-up call. “The national government has failed in its duty to protect citizens. We need local control to try new solutions, and the Constitution already gives us a path,” he said.

Digital access has become a central plank in the DA’s policing reform agenda. The party believes Starlink could close the communication gap that hampers crime prevention efforts, especially in areas with little or no fibre connectivity. 

But Starlink’s rollout in South Africa has faced regulatory hurdles. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa requires that foreign telecom operators hold at least 30% local ownership, a condition South African-born Musk has refused to comply with.

This week Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi, a member of the DA, defended a controversial policy directive reviewing ownership requirements in the ICT sector, which critics allege is designed to pave the way for Starlink into South Africa.

Appearing before parliament’s portfolio committee on communication, Malatsi said his recently gazetted proposed ICT policy adjustments were intended to broadly attract investment into the sector.

But committee members from the ANC, Economic Freedom Fighters and uMkhonto weSizwe accused him of attempting to bypass legislative processes and undermine local companies by using a ministerial directive instead of amending legislation. 

While proponents argue for the use of technology in policing, others have raised red flags about the risks of outsourcing national security infrastructure to a US-based company. Legal analysts argue that foreign satellite operators may not be bound by South Africa’s data protection laws, which could expose sensitive information to international surveillance.

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian last year, KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi expressed frustration with the centralised structure, saying provincial police leaders lack the authority to make operational decisions suited to local realities.

“We have budgets and responsibilities, but we don’t control staffing, deployments or logistics,” Mkhwanazi said, describing the system as “centralised in terms of constraint”. While he stopped short of advocating for devolution, his comments were interpreted by many as validation of the DA’s criticism of national policing.

Criminologist Guy Lamb described Mkhwanazi’s remarks as extraordinary. “SAPS is notoriously hierarchical. For a senior official to speak this frankly signals deep institutional frustration,” he said.

Former minister Cele repeatedly argued that decentralising the SAPS would require constitutional amendments and would fragment national coordination. “Security cannot be divided in a unitary state,” he said in parliament in 2021 — a position still echoed by many within the ruling party.

But political analysts such as Ongama Mtimka argue that there is room for deeper local collaboration within the existing framework. “The Constitution allows for local involvement in crime prevention. What’s missing is the political will to explore those avenues meaningfully.”

While the DA and its allies push for systemic reform, community organisations are urging politicians not to lose sight of the human cost. Residents of the Cape Flats, who face daily threats from gang violence, stress that real safety will require more than new technology or revised laws.

“We need trauma counselling, youth programmes, and jobs. Starlink won’t stop a bullet,” said Anthea Joseph, a youth mentor from Hanover Park. “Tech can help, but healing and opportunity must be part of the equation.”

Good party secretary general Brett Herron rebuked the DA’s stance on policing and crime, arguing that the party was “outrageously washing its hands of responsibility for transforming the culture of gangsterism in the Western Cape until it is given control of the police”.

“The party has been running the governments of Cape Town and the Western Cape for nearly two decades, more than long enough to implement its policies and programmes — but it takes no responsibility for gangsterism, which it blames solely on incompetent national policing.” 

Herron argued that the DA leadership is “better suited to running neighbourhood security companies than developing policy to reduce crime”.

“Until the politicians in charge of the city and province, and many in the media, stop regarding the culture of gangsterism as ‘normal’ on the Cape Flats, Cape Town police stations will continue to record the highest numbers of murders in the country,” he said.