Cape Town — Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has commended law enforcement agencies, disaster management staff, and emergency responders for their work in ensuring that the nationwide protests did not result in unrest in the province.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) took to the streets on Monday to demand an immediate end to load shedding and for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign.
But turnout was low and calls for strikes went unheeded, as the government mobilised thousands of police, backed by troops, to stifle any unrest.
Law enforcement and emergency services officials have been holding regular meetings since late last week to stay abreast of the situation and to coordinate their response.
“We were well prepared ahead of today and this was evident in how law enforcement agencies, from the South African Police Service (SAPS) to municipal law enforcement, as well as the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) closely coordinated their operations with other emergency services and community-based structures. We all worked together, sharing resources, to ensure our province and citizens were safe,” Winde said.
“If we are able to successfully coordinate our safety and emergency response resources to respond to significant threats and risks like we did today, we must and should repeat this generally in our fight against crime,” he added.
“Coordinated, data-driven and responsive enforcement should be our standard approach to tackling crime every day in this province. I will be engaging with Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile about how we can take the insights from today and apply in our fight against crime.”
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: Twitter/ @AdvoBarryRoux
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
