Zille takes war to gangs

More than R6-million of Western Cape' s education budget will be reallocated to ensuring safety and security at schools as gang violence continues unabated .

Sixteen schools in the gang-infested Cape Flats were shut down following bloody confrontations between warring gangs last week. They are expected to be reopened today.

But Premier Helen Zille said it was still not known what would have to be cut from the department of education's R12-billion budget to fund the safety and security upgrading.

Nearly 50 people have either been killed or wounded since violence broke out in Manenberg in June.

Zille said the latest spate of gang turf wars was related to the imminent release of Hard Livings gang boss Rashied Staggie on parole. He was imprisoned for ordering the rape of a 17-year-old.

Three weeks ago, the rape victim, now 30, was shot in the head while walking with a male companion and is now in hospital on life-support.

Zille said the provincial government and Cape Town city council did not have the constitutional authority to intervene in a meaningful way to prevent gang violence.

"The criminal justice system, the police, prosecution authorities and the courts are a national government competence," she said.

Zille used an identical argument last year when violence broke out in Lavender Hill after her calls for army intervention were dismissed by President Jacob Zuma.

She said that, instead of working with the provincial government, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had prevented community safety MEC Dan Plato from exercising police oversight.

Zille will meet Mthethwa on Thursday to discuss the violence.

The member of the Cape Town mayoral committee responsible for safety and security, JP Smith, said the city had allocated R24-million to its anti-gang strategy, which has so far yielded 240 arrests.

He said 42 additional metro police officers had been stationed in Manenberg to patrol hot spots. A further 18 would work two shifts a day to patrol routes to and from schools.

Jeremy Vearey , one of the Western Cape's top police officers , has poured cold water on the city's "ceasefire" programme.

The programme, run in Hanover Park - an area ravaged by gang violence - uses reformed gangsters to act as violence "interrupters" and to mediate between warring gangs.

Vearey, the Mitchells Plain policing cluster commander, claims the drop in Hanover Park's gang violence could be credited to community-driven policing .

On his Facebook page, Vearey said Smith's claim of success in Hanover Park was nothing more than "media hype".

Asked to clarify his online post, Vearey said he had not expressed his views as a police officer.

Smith said Vearey was a "problematic individual" and that the city had filed many complaints about him.

"He's in cahoots with [ANC provincial leader] Marius Fransman ... There's an orchestrated attempt to undermine the DA provincial government," Smith said.