Mthethwa attends politically coloured crime summit in Khayelitsha

About 300 people, many of them in the orange overalls of the Community Work Programme (CWP), attended the event.

A number of senior SAPS officials were in attendance, including the Provincial Commissioner Major General Arno Lamoer, Provincial Head of Crime Intelligence General Peter Jacobs, and all three station commanders from Khayelitsha.

Audience at the crime summit. Photo by Adam Armstrong.

Throughout, the event had a political undertone. Frequent references were made to the Commission of Inquiry into Policing in Khayelitsha. The commission was established by Premier Helen Zille after a number of NGOs including the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) submitted formal complaints to her about policing in Khayelitsha. The commission has looked only at SAPS, a national competency, and not investigated any of the provincial or city structures involved in creating a safe Khayelitsha.

Ndithini Tyhido, chairperson of the KDF, started his speech saying “Yes, I am a member of a political party, though today, I am also the head of the KDF.” He said the event was “requested before the commission was established”. KDF, he said, had for a long time known that the crime situation in Khayelitsha was a serious concern.

Ndithini Tyhido, head of the KDF. Photo by Adam Armstrong.

He went on to say, “We don’t have issues [with the commission]… we have issues with crime”.

“Vigilantism is crime, period…. We are moral people… We condemn all acts of vigilantism… As organisations such as the KDF, the SJC, women’s organisations [and so forth], it is our collective responsibility to condemn all acts of vigilantism.”

In his speech, Mthethwa said crime is a serious problem, a scourge that affects all of society. He said his ministry would be visiting communities across the country, almost on a weekly basis, to tap the collective wisdom of the people and learn how to combat crime.

Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa. Photo by Adam Armstrong.

“Matters of crime are not matters for cheap politicking for populism. They are serious matters … As we rose against apartheid racism, so we must unite to defeat criminality … Let others come and let us work together.”

He went on to say that “the battle against crime cannot be separated from the war on want”.

Mthethwa laid out six points that contribute to problems of insecurity and policing in Khayelitsha: inaccessible roads, a lack of streetlights, proper house numbering, sanitation, access to water resources and an absence of proper street names.

He said all of these were beyond the mandate of the police. They were infrastructural issues the police cannot address. He said both local and provincial government had a role to play.

A summit on crime or on the commission

While the crime summit continued inside, outside the venue there was a robust debate between Phumeza Mlungwana, Secretary of the SJC, and Tyhido.

Mlungwana asked him, “Is this a summit on crime or a summit on the commission?”

Tyhido and Mthethwa have been critical of the Commission, implying that the SJC was not a legitimate representative of the residents of Khayelitsha, and that the commission had been misled regarding evidence heard on the high-mast lighting in Khayelitsha that is not working.

According to Tyhido, the fact that 20 high-mast lights are not working in Khayelitsha is not because of theft (as was stated to the commission), but because the City chose to buy the lights from an international source and parts can take months to arrive.

The City said it was unable to comment before GroundUp published, but would respond to the accuracy of the claim shortly.

Some saw the event as an ANC response to the commission, a commission which has left the local SAPS reputation in tatters after weeks of testimony on police action in Khayelitsha. But to his credit Minister Mthethwa came to Khayelitsha and acknowledged that crime is a serious problem in the area.

It remains to be seen if the minister will follow up his speech with action.