Only one water cannon available to police protests in Gauteng, says MEC

The SAPS' public order policing unit in Gauteng has one water cannon to service the  entire province.

This was revealed by Gauteng community safety MEC Faith Mazibuko, in a written reply to questions tabled in the provincial legislature by DA MPL John Moodey.

Moodey said that according to Mazibuko, the cannon was in Johannesburg.

“It is worrying that Gauteng, which is the most densely populated province, has only one water cannon,” he said.

According to a report released last week by independent municipal research body Municipal IQ, Gauteng was ranked number one in terms of service delivery protests in SA, with 24% of the country’s public demonstrations taking place there this year, said Moodey.

“The water cannon is the safest method used to disperse crowds during protests and for crowd control. This is one of the provincial [public order policing] unit's most needed resources to effectively deal with and manage protest action,” Moodey said.

Mazibuko's answers revealed that the unit had 661 members in Gauteng, with most in the Johannesburg district (278). Apart from the water cannon, the unit had 57 nyala vehicles, five helicopters and two aircraft.

Moodey said Gauteng residents deserved a police service that was adequately resourced to keep them safe in their homes and on the street.

“I will be tabling follow-up questions to the MEC in the legislature to ascertain what plans are being put in place to ensure that our [unit], that is severely under-resourced, is given the resources it needs to combat crime,”  he said.