Police Oversight and Community Safety
Hon Walters.
How does her Department assist schools where gangsterism is experienced?
As the lead coordinator of the province’s Anti-Gang Implementation Plan and the facilitator of the Anti-Gang Priority Committee, the department provides strategic guidance and alignment between the various stakeholders, to strengthen interventions and support to the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).
The quarterly Priority Committee meetings provide departments with an opportunity to share the work that they are currently implementing. In addition, the participating departments use these meetings to discuss and unblock their challenges. Via the Anti-Gang Implementation Plan, the department prioritises the alignment of interventions to strengthen efforts to address gangsterism. This platform allows departments, including WCED, to engage senior officials from different stakeholders on the kind of support that is required. At this strategic level, the department has engaged WCED on their current pressing issues relating to gangsterism and are in the process of arranging meetings, at a local level, to explore and discuss localised issues and possible intervention plans to respond to gangsterism.
Furthermore, the department continues to engage and encourage various stakeholders to contribute towards addressing gangsterism because as law enforcement, alone, is unable to address this social issue. Also, the department is in the process of exploring ways to strengthen preventative efforts to address gangsterism.
