The DA in the Eastern Cape is promising to make Nelson Mandela Bay a safer city if it were to come into power after next year's local government election.
DA leader, Mmusi Maimane, joined provincial leader, Atholl Trollip on Sunday for the launch of the party's Safer City programme.
Trollip said his party would deliver a fully functional, skilled Metro Police force with a specialised anti-gang and drug unit, which will work with the SAPS to squash drugs and gangs.
"We will launch an anti-cable theft unit to prevent disruptions caused by theft of copper cables. We will prevent crime by working with the SAPS to share intelligence, we will upgrade dangerous areas in a way that makes them safer and more accessible to police including regular clearing of bushes and overgrown hideouts for gangsters and criminals," Trollip said.
He said "if elected to government, we will keep young people out of crime by growing the economy, creating jobs and making our young people economic agents."
Trollip said currently there was no plan to prevent or defeat crime in the Metro.
"We are not a safe city. 80% of people living in Nelson Mandela Bay are too afraid to go out after dark. Gangsters own the streets, and both young and old are unsafe because there is no plan to prevent or police crime in Nelson Mandela Bay," said Trollip.
"Crime thrives when jobs are lost and the economy shrinks, and this ANC government in NMB has allowed the economy to stagnate. Unemployment in Nelson Mandela Bay is the highest of any South African Metro at a staggering 36.6%, with youth unemployment even higher at 47.3% making crime a trap for our young people to fall into."
Trollip, who visited 60 wards in 60 days, said Nelson Mandela Bay was moving in the wrong direction under an ANC government.
