The Democratic Alliance says it will continue to campaign for the reintroduction of specialised rural safety units.
Speaking after a meeting of the party’s federal council‚ DA leader Mmusi Maimane said it was extremely concerned about the noticeable spike in extremely violent crimes in rural areas‚ often targeting farmers and farmworkers.
“Cases of farmers being tortured in gruesome ways‚ sometimes without any evidence of an accompanying robbery‚ must concern all South Africans‚” Maimane said.
He said rural communities needed specialised patrol and investigative capacity‚ and that it was unfortunate that President Jacob Zuma‚ in announcing the re-establishment of other specialised units in his state of the nation address‚ had not included rural safety units.
The party nevertheless welcomed the announcement that some specialised units would indeed be reintroduced.
“It is sad that it has taken 16 years for the government to see what should have been obvious — that specialised units have proven to be extremely effective in fighting the categories of crimes on which they are focused‚” Maimane said.
He added that the DA had been had campaigned for the reintroduction of specialised units for many years‚ after they were indefensibly scrapped in 2001.
DA to continue campaigning for specialised rural safety units
The Democratic Alliance says it will continue to campaign for the reintroduction of specialised rural safety units.
Speaking after a meeting of the party’s federal council‚ DA leader Mmusi Maimane said it was extremely concerned about the noticeable spike in extremely violent crimes in rural areas‚ often targeting farmers and farmworkers.
“Cases of farmers being tortured in gruesome ways‚ sometimes without any evidence of an accompanying robbery‚ must concern all South Africans‚” Maimane said.
He said rural communities needed specialised patrol and investigative capacity‚ and that it was unfortunate that President Jacob Zuma‚ in announcing the re-establishment of other specialised units in his state of the nation address‚ had not included rural safety units.
The party nevertheless welcomed the announcement that some specialised units would indeed be reintroduced.
“It is sad that it has taken 16 years for the government to see what should have been obvious — that specialised units have proven to be extremely effective in fighting the categories of crimes on which they are focused‚” Maimane said.
He added that the DA had been had campaigned for the reintroduction of specialised units for many years‚ after they were indefensibly scrapped in 2001.
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