Tony: nothing is done to create the safety of the community

Loyiso Langeni
24 January 2014

Congress of South African Trade Union in the Western Cape said it is stunned that Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security JP Smith puts more attention of dogs barking and people talking on cellphones rather then prioritising safety of communities in the city. 

Cosatu’s Provincial Spokesperson Tony Eheriench has called for JP Smith to be fired.

Tony said Cosatu is concerned about the general focus of the city of Cape Town administration, the safety and security department is focusing on people speaking on cellphone. while on a daily basis people are getting killed in the townships, and nothing is done significantly to create the safety of the community.

“We urge JP Smith to prioritize the most urgent need of our people not to put in place gimmicks that gets them into newspapers, our job is to make Cape Town a safer place for everyone and that should be the focus.” Eheriench added.

Meanwhile in response Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security JP Smith said Tony Eheriench is wrong on so many levels. 

Smith said it is a fact that more people die on our roads from preventable road accidents then gang violence. 

Smith also said So it is critical that we do key things to make our people safer and distracters who drive speaking on their cellphones is one of those things that cause many people to die. 

He added that The annual police plan and the anti crime development plan both of which the ANC voted for requires to do these things simultaneously.

“Only national government has a control over the national prosecuting authorities, the department of justice and the department of Correctional Services.” Smith added.

Tony’s job in this holy craziness to try and confuse the public over who is responsible for what, who is failing the public and causing gang violence to ran amok and trying to deflect the tension from their failure to other people.” Smith added.