New Year’s Eve crime crackdown
|Published
Cape Town-141230-Gen. Arno Lamoer addressed the media at a press conference held at the Police Headquaters in Greenpoint, after which he visited Camps Bay beach and Sea Point Swimming Pool. In pic, Colonel Mahla Lento, Lamoer and Sizakele Dyantyi stroll through the Sea Point Pool-Reporter-Warda Meyer-Photographer-Tracey Adams Cape Town-141230-Gen. Arno Lamoer addressed the media at a press conference held at the Police Headquaters in Greenpoint, after which he visited Camps Bay beach and Sea Point Swimming Pool. In pic, Colonel Mahla Lento, Lamoer and Sizakele Dyantyi stroll through the Sea Point Pool-Reporter-Warda Meyer-Photographer-Tracey Adams
Cape Town - More than 10 000 police, metro police and traffic officers will be deployed in the Western Cape from today and over the next few days as revellers take to the streets, beaches and other popular tourist spots to ring in the New Year.
On Tuesday, Western Cape police commissioner Lieutenant-General Arno Lamoer said roadblocks, visible foot, horse and vehicle patrols, search and seizure operations, as well as action against illegal liquor outlets would be some of the operations that law enforcement agencies would be executing over the next few days.
Warning the public to be “responsible” and law abiding during festivities, Lamoer said around the clock visible policing would be in place to curb criminal activities and drunk driving, in particular.
He said the police’s main concerns this time of the year were parents leaving their children unattended at beaches; domestic violence, alcohol-related stabbings; robberies, road safety and securing major events.
Lamoer revealed that more than 20 people were murdered in the province on Christmas Day, of which the majority were stabbings or liquor-related.
But the police chief declined to disclose the exact Christmas murder death toll.
“Substance abuse and alcohol abuse plays a major role in these murders. Ninety percent of the murders committed on Christmas Day were because of liquor and stabbings,” he added.
Lamoer’s comments comes in the wake of a study by the SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) released this week, which found the Western Cape to be the most dangerous province in the country.
The study measured crime rankings according to statistics on murder, robbery, and assault.
The SAIRR said Limpopo emerged as the safest province overall and the Western Cape the most dangerous.
“Limpopo emerged as the safest province overall and the Western Cape the most dangerous.”
Its study measured crime rankings according to murder, robbery, and assault statistics.
While the Western Cape fared badly when it came to protecting its residents from harm, the province was tops in terms of health, service delivery, and social well-being.
However, overall, Gauteng emerged as the country’s best province, with the highest rankings in economic growth, employment rates, and education.
“Gauteng is the best province in South Africa to live in, followed, in descending order, by the Western Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Free State, the North West and the Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape,” said the report’s author Thuthukani Ndebele.
The Eastern Cape fared the worst when it came to service delivery, measured by factors such as access to piped water and refuse removal.
But Lamoer, who went on a walkabout in Camps Bay and Sea Point on Tuesday, said the fact that people visited the Western Cape in their droves meant that they see the province as a safe destination.
Promising more officers on the ground, during the New Year’s celebrations, Lamoer said police would be implementing a tight security plan in an effort to safeguard residents and visitors.
“There will be deployment at the beaches and other popular New Years eve venues to ensure the safety of the public,” he added.
He added that almost a thousand people have been arrested for drunken driving despite so many options available to them to party and get home safely.
“Celebrate with responsibility, don’t feel sad or bad the next day when you realise that you did something irresponsible. We will be out in full force but the public must do their part and celebrate responsibly,” Lamoer said.
Healso urged parents to get their children tagged by making use of the venue operational centres at priority beaches, where children can be tagged with their parents’ contact details in the event of them getting lost.
“We can have hundreds of police officers deployed but if the public don’t adhere to the rule of law, it will be difficult for police to do their jobs.”
Additional reporting by Sapa
Cape Argus