DA ‘shocked’ public order policing in Gauteng has only one water cannon

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has expressed its shock at the fact that the Gauteng SAPS Public Order Policing (POP) Unit has only one water cannon to service the entire province.

The DA’s member of the provincial legislature, John Moodey, said in a statement on Monday that this was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for community safety, Faith Mazibuko, in a written reply to his questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

According to MEC Mazibuko, POP has only one water cannon which is in the Johannesburg District.

“It is worrying that Gauteng, which is the most densely populated province, has only one water cannon,” Moodey said.

According to a report released last week by an Independent Municipal Research body, Gauteng is ranked number one in terms of service delivery protests in the country with 24% of the country’s public demonstrations in this year alone, he added.

“The water cannon is the safest method used to disperse crowds during protests and for crowd control.

“This is one of the provincial POP Unit’s most needed resources in order to effectively deal with and manage protest action.

“Our residents deserve a police service that is adequately resourced to keep them safe in their homes and on the street.

“I will be tabling follow-up questions to the MEC in the legislature to ascertain what plans are being put in place to ensure that our POP Unit that is severely under-resourced is given the resources it needs to combat crime.”

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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