The DA in the Eastern Cape has called for a total ban on cellphones in St Albans prison in Port Elizabeth.
And, according to DA deputy provincial leader, Bobby Stevenson, the ban should extend to Correctional Services officials as well.
The call by the DA comes in the wake of claims that incarcerated gang leaders are allegedly ordering hits from prison.
It also come in a week in which it was reported that PE murder accused, Sizwezakhe Vumazonke, may have been active on his facebook page while in custody.
His profile has since been removed.
In a statement on Sunday, Stevenson said gang violence in PE Northern Areas should be treated as a war.
He said the cellphone ban was successfully implemented in Mangaung prison in Bloemfontein.
Stevenson said the DA believes that the following steps will assist in eradicating the scourge of gangsterism in the Northern Areas:
1.) A total ban on all cell phones into St. Albans prison including people who work there. Police complain that hits and intimidation of witnesses are organised from St. Albans. This ban has been successfully implemented in Mangaung prison in Bloemfontein.
2.) Fix the CCTV cameras that are not operational in the northern areas. This is the job of the municipality.
3.) Ensure that Gelvandale police station has the required number of vehicles. When we visited them last week, we were informed that only 10 of their 24 allocated vehicles were operational that day.
4.) Expedite the opening of the new police station in the Booysenspark area. For two years I have been campaigning for a satellite police station in that area to alleviate the pressure on Gelvandale and Bethelsdorp police stations. We were told by the provincial commissioner that a fully-fledged police station would be opened in that area and that they were busy negotiating land from the municipality. This process must be speeded up.
5.) Prosecution services and the police need to work closely together so that gangsters are not given easy bail and released back into communities where they can intimidate witnesses.
6.) Whereas we congratulate the SAPS on the 479 arrests since 2013 in gang-related crimes, they alone cannot combat gangsterism. The task team appointed by the Premier needs to start delivering results. The key job of this task team needs to be to the co-ordination of the efforts of police, prisons, prosecution authorities as well as social development, education, the municipality and community organisations.
All have a role to play in implementing programmes and strategies to combat gangsterism. Unless they are co-ordinated under the leadership of one person, with the necessary drive, commitment and political will, we will not win this war. A simple example of what the department of education needs to do is monitor drop-out rates at school and ensure that when learners drop out, they are brought back to school and do not become labour pools for gangsters.
7.) Fighting gangsters and drugs is a highly specialised task and the DA believes that the specialised national anti-gang and anti-drug units need to be re-established. They were disbanded in 2002 with fatal consequences.
8.) Implement a metro police services. The City of Cape Town metro police service has specialised anti-drug and anti-gang units.
