Questions and Replies

Question by Hon Jacobs.

Whether her Department has any plans to increase the provincial fleet of ambulances during the next five financial years; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?

With reference to his address at the opening of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament in which he said that LEAP officers had made more than 34 000 arrests since the launch of the programme:

1. What is the (a) number of arrests, by crime category, for each of the LEAP priority areas and (b) impact of LEAP officers on communities where the murder rate has increased over the past four years since LEAP officers had been deployed in those areas;
2. seeing that the Western Cape Safety Plan states that “addressing spatial inequality and the lack of social cohesion in our communities are further important dimensions of the Western Cape Safety Plan”, how has the Western Cape Government addressed (a) spatial inequality and (b) social cohesion;
3. in terms of the ministerial responsibilities to address “safety priorities”, as set out in Chapter 7 of the Western Cape Safety Plan, what was achieved to date by each of the Ministers measured against the identified “safety priorities”;
4. given that the Western Cape Safety Plan’s interventions are “knowledge-driven”, (a) what work has each department conducted to plan, document and evaluate the various interventions upon which they embark to assess whether the metrics associated with each safety priority are on track towards being met and (b)(i) why, (ii) where and (iii) how;
5. whether there is a document with the work in (4) above available; if so, can a copy be made available;
6. given the Western Cape Safety Plan’s recognition that data and information may “necessitate a change of focus, interventions and/or operational framework” and is “open to adaptation based on results”, what data and information have been recorded since the implementation Western Cape Safety Plan;
7. whether this data and information have necessitated any change in focus, interventions or operational framework; if so, what are the relevant details;
8. whether the Western Cape Safety Plan has been adapted or updated since it was adopted; if not, why not; if so, can a copy be made available?

With regard to the Western Cape Government’s Social Infrastructure Accessibility Study (June 2017) for the Greater Saldanha Regional Spatial Implementation Framework that identified that there was, at that time, an undersupply of facilities, in particular “3 x secondary schools” for St Helena Bay:

(1)     Whether his Department addressed the undersupply of secondary school facilities in St Helena Bay; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;

(2)     (a) what plans and budgets are in place for the development of secondary schools in St Helena Bay, (b) when will a new secondary school be built in St Helena Bay, (c) what has been the delay in addressing the undersupply of secondary schools identified seven years ago in the aforementioned study and (d)(i) how many secondary school learners are being transported to schools in Vredenburg and (ii) what is the annual cost of that learner transport;

(3)     the aforementioned study identified an undersupply of “five secondary schools” in Vredenburg, (a) how many secondary schools have been built in Vredenburg since that undersupply was identified in that study and (b) what are the details of those schools;

(4)     seeing that the Department has developed fewer than five secondary schools in Vredenburg and none in St Helena Bay, how has his Department planned for secondary school learners from St Helena Bay to have access to basic education;

(5)     how many learners (a) in Vredenburg and St Helena Bay can be accommodated in secondary schools in Vredenburg and (b)(i) will not gain access to a secondary school in Vredenburg in 2025 and (ii) what is his Department’s plan for their education?

Question by Hon Walters.

With regard to her Department’s Court Watching Brief Programme:

(a)   How many cases have been monitored by this programme in (i) total and (ii) 2024 to date, (b) in how many of these cases were suspects prosecuted for (i) extortion and (ii) gang-related offences and (c) in how many of these cases were suspects (i) convicted, (ii) acquitted and (iii) when acquitted, what were the reasons for the acquittal?