Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation

Assessing City Safety Arrangements in Cape Town:
July 2000

by
Mzi Memeza

Report prepared as part of the City Safety Project (funded by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa).

Mzi Memeza is a former Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Background and Methodology

This is the third in a series of reports analyzing developments in city governance for safety and crime reduction in South Africa's four major cities. It attempts to present a more detailed analysis of developments in Cape Town than was possible our baseline report.1

This analysis of city safety in the Cape Town metro is based on the information gathered through in-depth interviews conducted with safety and security officials,2 experts, and other local role players in the field of safety and security. The interviews were conducted in Cape Town, using a structured questionnaire. They were recorded and later transcribed.

Structures dealing with safety and security in the Cape Town Metro

In the Cape Town Metropolitan Council there is no specific department dealing with safety and security, rather safety and security functions are located under the Directorate of Protection, Health and Trading Services. The primary responsibilities of this directorate are the co-ordination of primary health care and protection services within the Metro area. The protection services aspect covers the metro wide co-ordination of fire services, disaster management, and the provision of ambulance services on behalf of the Provincial Administration Western Cape (PAWC). Safety and security is dealt with under the delivery of services for Disaster Management, Fire Services, and Ambulance Services; and a small Safer Cities Office has been established. Cape Town Metro's strategic approach to safety and security essentially sees Municipal Local Councils (MLC's) as the implementers of crime prevention programmes and the delivery agencies for safety and security. The various local and Metro councils in Cape Town have established a 'Functional Committee', which is a co-ordinating mechanism body for the six MLC's, concerning operational matters like traffic, law enforcement and joint operations. The Metro Council's role in crime prevention is a co-ordinating one. The CMC claims to be pro-active in so far as its involvement in the Safer City Programme is concerned.3 According to the CMC, safety and security is one of their service delivery priorities for the year 2000. However, at the moment, the CMC is still to finalize its safety and crime prevention strategy for the metro area, and its energies are spent either on co-ordinating the activities of the local implementation agencies (such as MLC's) or on ad-hoc prevention projects.

The organisational structures of each of the six MLC's in Cape Town are similar. They tend to have a Directorate of Protection Services co-ordinating three departments or units, which are Fire and Rescue, Traffic and Security and Law Enforcement. In all the MLC's, there seems to be an emphasis on traffic enforcement. The concentration of resources on traffic divisions over other divisions like Security, Fire and Rescue is noticeable throughout.

There is also a general move towards redefining and restructuring Council security services in relation to the guarding of staff and property. For example, in Oostenberg and Helderberg, both councils have committed themselves (by way of agreement or a resolution) to a process which would ultimately see the replacement of their current in-house security division with outside private security companies. The Blaauwberg Municipal Council has already outsourced its entire security function, leaving it with a security division mostly manned by reserve officers. The general move towards outsourcing MLC security functions is rooted in two developments. Firstly, it is in line with the general rationalization in preparation for the unicity; and, secondly a renewed emphasis on by-law enforcement has seen the channeling of council resources to by-law enforcement agencies instead of guarding agencies. Interestingly this development has already taken place in the Tygerberg Municipal Local Council where the council's enforcement and security officers share responsibilities. In most MLC's in Cape Town, the number of by-law enforcement officers (excluding traffic) is very small, and the present security guards have been earmarked to join these units in order to enhance their capacity.

Another crucial development within the context of organisational change is the marked emphasis on the need for multi-skilling and training of personnel. Inspired by the advent of the unicity, the MLC's have stressed the need for a slimmer organisational structure with a sizeable number of personnel able to service all the various internal council departments requiring enforcement services. In MLC's such as Blaauwberg, this process is already underway and shall be dealt with below.

In addition to full time staff, the MLC's appoint reservists or volunteers, who are recruited from the community and assist the departments of fire and rescue when necessary.

Resources for Safety and Crime Prevention

The CMC administers a budget for public safety of about R7 million at Metro level. R1 million is dedicated to crime prevention projects and the remaining R6 million to the community patrol scheme and other safety and security functions.4 Each MLC has a budget of around R12-20 million inclusive of monies allocated to the Fire and Rescue, Traffic, Security and Law Enforcement departments.

Crime Prevention Initiatives in the Cape Town Metro area

Crime Prevention at the Cape Town Metro level

The CMC undertakes various crime prevention initiatives,5 primarily through its Safer Cities office, and in partnership with other government agencies or civil society groups. It has three programmes:

Crime Prevention at MLC level

Each MLC in Cape Town has a 'public safety plan', but few activities other than the regular enforcement of by-laws, because of a lack of funds and capacity. At MLC level, there are no dedicated crime prevention units. Most officials cite the Fire and Rescue department's use of reservists or volunteers from the community as a stepping-stone towards injecting a crime prevention focus in their department. As Piet Steyn the Oosternberg Municipal Council puts it:

this is one way of making the community to be involved because they are given training and they in turn help their communities.

Fire and Rescue and Disaster Management divisions have succeeded in ensuring good community involvement in their operational activities, especially in Oostenberg and Blaauwberg. In the face of a crisis of capacity, they have managed to mobilize volunteers to fill the human resource gap, and at the same time to promote safety awareness in the communities. The prevalence of squatter settlements in these areas has also necessitated a strengthening of community–council relations geared towards dealing with the floods and fires which tend to take a toll in these areas. According to Piet Steyn:6

The Fire and Rescue, and Disaster Management have a more pronounced role than other departments here, particularly because in winter time chances of having floods are great and summer time is fires … but we are handling it quite well. We have established our own emergency committees in the camps and if there is the fire or whatever the case may be the people in the settlements are the first on the scene.

Officials believe that the Fire and Emergency and Disaster Management initiatives have the effect of promoting thinking around community safety and enabling community participation in the area of Fire and Disaster Management; and the implication is that this has potential benefits in the sphere of crime prevention.

The widespread use of 24-hour Communication Centres in Blaauwberg, Helderburg and Oostenberg is important for rapid response to crimes as they provide an avenue for reporting incidents of crime. The 24- hour Communication Centre is a joint SAPS and Council Protection Services venture. It handles complaints, call taking, dispatching and also serves as centre for joint SAPS and council operations. In Oostenberg and Helderburg, their Fire and Rescue Departments also complement this capacity by using their radio and communications equipment to link up with the SAPS at the various local police stations:

If, for instance, the Fire and Rescue Department receives a call or report which is not related to their area of operation – but crime related - they report it on the radio linking up with a SAPS police station7 nearby.8

Similarly in the Helderberg Municipal Council:

the Fire and Rescue Department works a 24-hour control room and boosts our security, traffic division and by-law enforcement agencies. They take complaints on a 24-hour basis, and report to the relevant divisions and police stations in the area.9

The MLC's view their public safety role as manifested largely in their Departments of Traffic, Security, Fire and Rescue and Disaster Management, although, in the way they are directed presently, these departments do not have a clear crime prevention or community safety focus. The notion of 'crime prevention' is fairly loosely understood.10 Some of the few visible crime prevention activities underway in any of the protection Services Departments were in the Fire departments in the Oostenberg, Tygerberg and Helderburg Municipal Council. These departments are involved in regular clearing of vacant plots. The officials claim that this has a crime prevention benefit:

The cleaning of vacant plots contributes to crime prevention; it helps the SAPS with the policing of the areas. People can't hide stolen goods.11

The council has created a structure which enables informal traders to deal with their operational needs and provide an avenue for settling disputes amongst themselves. Through the structure, the informal traders are able to detect criminal elements in the area and report directly to council officials or an enforcement unit on site. The structure has effectively dealt with policing problems in the areas where the street traders are located.

The street traders with the help of council have set up their business in blocks. Each block has its leader and a management committee elected through a democratic process. The council's role in the whole process is the provision of financial and infrastructural support to the management committees. According to Neville Michaels,12 this has improved relations between the informal and established formal business, and has also generated investment in the area because of the safety the areas offer.

Another project that is widely understood as a crime prevention initiative is the "Arrive Alive" campaign.13 Beyond this there is little or no other effort at initiating crime prevention projects in the Cape Town Municipal Local Councils.

It is apparent that relations between the MLC's and local SAPS stations are healthy. There are regular meetings between the local councils and local police stations aimed at reviewing the crime situation and trends.

Unicity developments

The Cape Town Unicity Commission – the temporary body responsible for supervising the transition of metropolitan Cape Town to a unicity - was launched on the 25th of November 1999, with the primary task of making recommendations to the Provincial Minister for Local Government on all issues relating to the transition to a unicity in Cape Town. The dis-establishment of the seven local councils is central to the unicity project, and this has far-reaching implications for the delivery of safety and security services to local communities. A situation radically different to the present one is envisaged in the realm of safety and security. The present state of affairs is characterized by the management and implementation of safety and security functions at MLC level, but the future will see the central metropolitan authority being central to the strategic management and co- ordination of safety and security functions, with only operational decision-making powers remaining at the very local level.

In the area of training, unicity developments have necessitated the need for standardized training in law enforcement and crime prevention issues, across the MLC's. Binding agreements have already been entered into by the MLC's to ensure standardisation in the areas of training, risk management and operational systems. The traffic departments in all the MLC's have signed agreements to work with the metro council to ensure efficient use of resources. According to Berrington of the Blaauwberg Municipal Council; "things are already uniform to a large extent, and what happens in this MLC from the point of view of traffic is not different from what happens in other MLC's".

The Unicity Commission intends to develop a comprehensive safety and security strategy14 and wants 'to ensure that safety and security is established as a core function of all departments of the unicity and as a key strategic priority for the unicity and all its departments, and that policies to guide the unicity in this should be put into place'.15

One of the key challenges in the unicity process is the need to harmonise and integrate all by-laws governing the unicity area, and this does not appear to be receiving much attention at present.

By-law Enforcement in Cape Town

Existing approaches

Currently, law enforcement agencies in the Cape Town local and metro government structures are quite fragmented, with the exception of traffic which is currently administered from the Metro level. The MLC's have diverse legal frameworks for by-law enforcement.16

There is a sharp difference between what the City of Cape Town Council does, in comparison to the other local councils. Previously, there were various by-law enforcement agencies within the City of Cape Town Local Council. There were enforcement agencies from the departments of cleaning, focusing on littering and dumping; parks and forests, focusing on environmental conservation and the maintaining of parks; a department dealing with static guarding and access control with a unique component dealing with alarm response; a department dealing with VIP protection; and a department comprising of the Beach Constables responsible for the maintenance of beaches. The relatively new "Civic Patrol" Division was formed to integrate all these pre-existing enforcement units, and its 155 members deals with the following:

Some enforcement officials remain outside the Civic Patrol division – such as Health, Electricity and Building Inspectors (with some of their legal enforcement functions – e.g. the issuing of summons and legal processing - carried out by traffic officers), and the component dealing with illegal land invasions. The Health and Building inspectors monitor adherence to health standards and the relevant building regulations, and utilize the Civic Patrol to assist when the need arises. In the City of Cape Town, enforcement priorities for the Civic Patrol Unit are:17

In the other MLC's, there are small enforcement agencies, which deal with a range of laws and by-laws, from beach protection to litter and dog licensing. In Oostenberg, for example, there are 3 law enforcement officials (and 35 uniformed traffic officers) whose priorities are:18

In Helderberg, there are approximately 16 law enforcement officials, and, while priorities are constantly changing, the main enforcement issues revolve around residential quality-of-life issues and the enforcement of the by-laws relating to the beaches falling under the Helderberg council's jurisdiction.19 Beyond the clearing of vacant plots, the empowering of informal or street traders in Tygerberg as priority area in their by-law enforcement strategy, they are also seen as crime prevention initiatives.

Community Patrol Officers (CPO)

The CPO's were started as a way of beefing up the city council of Cape Town's by-law enforcement, policing and crime prevention capacity. Business and council contributes towards the running of the CPO scheme, which consists of community members who are employed by the council on a contract basis as police reservists, earning a monthly salary of R3 000 rands. They are trained and equipped by the by the SAPS. In terms of training, the Provincial commissioner of the SAPS awards a CPO member with a certificate upon completion of the programmes on the First Aid Training, Basic Fire Training, Basic Fire Arms Competency and the traffic warden course. In addition to this training, SAPS offers their own additional training and the business community also offers occasional seminars. There are presently plans underway to introduce 'advanced law enforcement' officers course to deal with more complex issues around by-law enforcement and this is going to take place under the proposed three year training plan.

The are presently 16 CPO's employed by the city council of Cape Town,20 and they report directly to the SAPS (through a designated police station). The CPO's role in crime prevention is also directed by the SAPS , who decide on issues of deployment and also handle the administrative needs of the CPO (whilst the council handles operational requirements). The CPO unit in central Cape Town is credited (with CCTV project) with major reductions in crime in the centre of the city.

The Municipal Court in Cape Town

Municipal and Traffic courts in the Cape Town City Council jurisdiction (courts dealing specifically with the prosecution of municipal by–law violations) were introduced through the legislative framework provided for by the National Prosecutorial Act. The National Prosecutorial Act (herein referred to as the Act) provides for the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) to delegate authority to any official, or to any employee the power to prosecute. After a series of negotiations between the NDPP, the Department of Justice and the Cape Town City Council, by-law violation offences were categorized, and the Director of Public Prosecutions gave council officials authority to prosecute on municipal by-law matters. This enabled the City of Cape Town to initiate the process of setting up its own Municipal Courts.

These courts are an example of an innovative partnership between the local government and the national Justice and Prosecuting agencies. The National Department of Justice provides the magistrates and trains the Clerks of these Courts, and the City of Cape Town provides for all the other functions (eg the prosecutors, venues and administration) of these courts. Together, the traffic and municipal court have an operating budget of R600 000 from the Cape Town City Council. The courts are managed by a management team made up of City Council, the Department of Justice, and the NDPP. (The Department of Justice plays a supervisory role, as directed by national legislation). There are regular monthly meetings to review progress and developments in these local courts.

Whilst the project is described as a success and an example to be followed by other major cities in South Africa, the absence of mechanisms to evaluate its impact on by-law compliance is still a problem.

Civil Law Remedies

There seems to be no particular approach to developing civil law strategies among the various by-law enforcement agencies in the MLC's in Cape Town.

The Establishment of a Metro Police Service

In Cape Town, the debate about metro policing and metro crime reduction initiatives is not focused per-se on the establishment of a Municipal Police Service, but rather on the adoption of community safety as a strategic priority within the city government. According to MLC officials, the Western Cape Provincial government has expressed the need for the establishment of a Municipal Police Service but hasn't engaged with the issue further or committed itself to assist with the establishment. The Cape Town Unicity Commission, with the help of consultants,21 is currently embarking on a project to develop a comprehensive safety and security strategy for the Cape Metro area. Amongst the objectives of the project is to give impetus to the establishment of a Municipal Police Service. The strategy development proposal (drafted by the consultants) suggests, inter-alia, the appointment of working groups to develop the Unicity's strategies for Metro Policing and law enforcement. A range of factors which the council has to take into account in establishing a Municipal Police Service are set out, which include the need for the public to be informed about the distinction between the SAPS and the Municipal Police Service so that community members are not prejudiced against a municipal police service because it is unable to assist them in dealing with crime issues which the public regards as policing responsibilities, but in fact fall outside the mandate of an MPS. The project document also warns that cognizance should be taken of the benefits and costs of the establishment of a Municipal Police Service. Running parallel to these concerns is the overarching need for the rationalization of by-laws and the establishment of uniform standards and procedures across the Unicity boundaries. Even though there is no firm commitment yet to establish a Municipal Police service in Cape Town, the Unicity Commission's document has put the issue firmly on the agenda.

Challenges

The challenges for city government in respect of crime and safety in Cape Town are significant, especially in the face of some very specific local problems like gangsterism and urban terrorism.

The imperative for crime prevention is not well entrenched, either at a metro or MLC level, in local government structures. Safety and security at CMC level is currently dealt with in conjunction with Health and Trading Services, suggesting that it has not been seen as sufficiently important to justify a dedicated Department. A more concerted and dedicated approach to safety and security does exist at the MLC level. However, even at a local level, there seems to be an overwhelming emphasis on Fire, Rescue and Disaster Management, to the detriment of crime prevention and by-law enforcement. Even though Traffic Departments play a role in policing, their lines of operation have been integrated into those of Fire, Rescue and Disaster Management, rather than into the new crime prevention approach proposed in national government policy.22

The rate of progress in crime prevention by the local governments and by-law enforcement agencies varies significantly across the Cape metro area. The Cape Town City Council, through its Civic Patrol unit, has been able to amalgamate most by-law enforcement agencies in the city, and this has resulted in the council realizing its objectives more successfully than most. A remaining problem is the need to revise the legislative framework for by-laws and review the desirability of some of the by-laws.

The role of non-governmental organisations in training and promoting a new approach to by-law enforcement and crime prevention is recognised in many of the councils (this is perhaps more pronounced in respect of crime prevention). Both at the Metro and local MLC level, officials admit to lacking a proper grasp of the concept of crime prevention, and allude to the need for immediate intervention in this area, particularly by NGO's. We view this positively, as an opportunity to build innovative partnerships for public safety between local government and NGO's in Cape Town.

Acknowledgements

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation's City Safety Project would like to acknowledge and thank the following individuals and organisations for their time, co-operation and patience in assisting with this phase of our research. This paper would not have been possible had the following individuals not made themselves available for interviews:

Terrence Berrington Blaauwberg Municipal Council (Traffic)
Mr. Van Schalkwyk Blaauwberg Municipal Council (Law Enforcement)
Omar Valley Cape Town Metro Council: Directorate of Protection Services: Safer Cities
Mr. Lotz & Danie Celliers Helderberg Municipal Council
Melanie Lue Cape Town City Council: Civic Patrol
Sean Tait UMAC
Hishaam Mohammed Department of Justice
Piet Steyn Oostenberg Municipal Council

Reference List

Buizedenhout, Jessica. Cape Argus. City Pays Price for Summoning Sherrif.

Cape Town Metro Council website. http://www.capetown.gov.za

Hadland Adrian. Cape Argus. Give Us Our Corps. February 08, 2000.

Resolve Crime and Security Solutions (2000) Project for the Development of a Comprehensive Safety and Security Strategy for the CMA.

Staff Writers. Cape Argus. A Big Step in Dealing With Petty Offences.

Sangster M. Municipal Services Report-Protection Services. 1999.08.17

UMAC. Khayelitsha Community Safety Forum Urban Renewal Strategy. May 2000

Notes:

1 See Baseline Report.

2 Interviews were conducted at the City Council of cape Town, Blaauwberg, Tygerberg, Helderberg and the Cape Metro council but not at South Peninsula.

3 See Baseline Report (p22) for brief discussion of the role of the Safer City Programme in safety and crime prevention.

4 See Baseline Report (p23).

5 See Baseline Report (p23).

6 Steyn P. (2000, July 04). Oosternberg Municipal Local Council.

7 There are four police stations in the Oosternberg Municipality area- in Kraaifontein, Brakensfell, Kuilsriver, and Eersteriver.

8 Steyn P. (2000, July 04). Oosternberg Municipal Local Council.

9 Lotze and Cilliers (2000, July 05). Helderberg Municipal Local Council.

10 We believe that there activities in other Divisions of the MLC's (such as Community Services) which we would regard as crime prevention (for example interventions with victims, youth at risk or families). However, we did not interview officials from those Divisions during this phase of the research; and our observations here about the paucity of crime prevention activity at MLC level reflect specifically on the views of the Protection Services officials with whom we spoke.

11 Lotze (2000, July 05). Helderberg Municipal Local Council; Berrington (2000, July 05) Blaauwberg Municipal Local Council and Steyn (2000, July 04). Oosternberg Municipal Local Council.

12 Chief Officer of security and by-law enforcement in the Tygerberg Municipal Local Council.

13 This view seems to be shared by most MLC in the four major cities of South Africa.

14 The Unicity Commission has received a report and recommendations to this effect from Resolve Crime and security Solutions.

15 Resolve Crime and Security Solutions p. 38.

16 They enforce by-laws regarding dogs, solid waste, fire and ambulance by-laws, advertising noise, etc. It is worth-noting that whilst there is a long list of by-laws, there is a tendency to focus on the enforcement of only certain by-laws, for example, in the Blaauwberg and the South Peninsula municipal councils with a jurisdictional area including the sea shore, the enforcement of beach, littering, and public nuisance by-laws are more emphasised.

17 Lue M. (2000 July 06). Cape Town City Council.

18 Steyn P. (2000, July 04). Oosternberg Municipal Local Council.

19 Lotze and Celliers (2000, July 05). The Helderberg Municipal Local Council.

20 With 87 more in training.

21 The Cape Metro is making use of the services of consultants 'Resolve Crime and Security Solutions'.

22 As expressed in the 1998 White Paper on Safety and Security

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