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The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape has questioned the effectiveness of the SA Police Service’s 72-hour activation plan in addressing violent crime.
MPL, Bobby Stevenson, said the recent murders of two SAPS members highlight the urgency for a better plan to deal with violent crime, especially in Nelson Mandela Bay.
“The existing 72-hour activation plan has generally proven to be futile and has failed to bring these criminals to justice,” he said.
He said according to a written response to questions in the Legislature by the DA, Community Safety MEC, Xolile Nqatha, noted that the 72-hour plan was activated 135 times across the province, “once in the 20/21 financial year, 44 times in the 21/22 financial year and 90 times in the 22/23 financial year.”
MEC Nqata, who said the plan was successful, noted that the main purpose of the plan, introduced in November 2020, was to “mobilise intelligence-led investigation and combat teams to speedily track, trace and apprehend/arrest the suspects within 72 hours.”
The MEC said the activation plan is normally activated after, but not limited to attacks on national key points, including police stations, the killing of a police officer, and other “serious and noteworthy crimes” such as cash-in-transit robberies.
But, Stevenson said these activations led to the arrest of just 91 suspects, and of those cases, just three convictions to date.
He said the DA was calling for a review of the 72-hour activation plan and for urgent interventions to be applied.
