The City of Cape Town says the New Year’s long weekend was quieter than the one before and Mayoral Committee Member JP Smith has thanked the public for heeding the appeal to celebrate responsibly.

There are still some concerns and the New Year weekend wasn’t without incident. Officers arrested 66 drunk drivers, and given the carnage on our roads, there can be no leniency for those who put their own lives and that of others at risk when they are behind the wheel.

In total, the City of Cape Town’s enforcement agencies arrested 121 suspects and issued nearly 18 000 fines for various transgressions.

Meanwhile, the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre (PECC) recorded just over 1 000 calls, less than a third compared to the previous week.

On Sunday, 1 January 2023, Metro Police Special Operations unit recovered an illegal firearm and ammunition in Hanover Park when they were flagged down by a resident while busy with crime prevention patrols.

They were tipped off about the whereabouts of a person who was involved in a shooting incident at Soetwater Court a few days prior.

The officers responded and found the suspect after he tried to flee. When he was searched, officers discovered a 9mm pistol with 13 rounds in the magazine and a sealed box with another 50 x 9mm live rounds wrapped with a cloth in the yard.

The 25-year-old suspect was arrested for the illegal possession of ammunition and a firearm and detained at Philippi SAPS.

Metro Police officers also arrested an arson suspect on Saturday, 31 December 2022 after they received a complaint of a Wendy house alight in Blue Downs.

Upon arrival, the complainant pointed at the suspect who had set the house alight. The 26-year-old was arrested for malicious damage to property and detained at Kleinvlei SAPS.

• Cape Town Traffic Services held integrated roadblocks, vehicle checkpoints and speed control operations in the week of 25 December 2022 to 31 December 2022. A total of 29 398 speeding offences were recorded; officers impounded 75 public transport vehicles and executed 357 warrants of arrest. They also arrested 72 motorists of which 59 were driving under the influence of alcohol and six for reckless and negligent driving.
• Metro Police officers made 49 arrests and issued 2 903 fines. Officers also responded to 24 domestic violence calls, while seven of the arrests were for drunk driving.
• During the period 30 December 2022 to 2 January 2023, the PECC recorded 2 717 incidents. Just over 40% of these incidents were requests for medical assistance. Call-takers also recorded 215 assault incidents, 277 nuisance complaints, and 76 domestic violence incidents.

Meanwhile, the Western Cape Department of Health says there were fewer emergencies and crash sites over the New Year’s long weekend, compared to the Christmas long weekend.

Dr Saadiq Kariem, the Chief of Operations said:

We thank our citizens for playing their part in adopting safer personal choices. Their actions helped reduce the additional strain our staff had to deal with in responding to life-threatening emergencies.

During the New Year’s weekend (From 00h00 on Friday, 30 December 2022 to 10h00 on Tuesday, 3 January 2023), 3534 trauma cases presented to 41 emergency centres (ECs) across the province. In addition to these, a further 9555 patients needed non-trauma medical care.

Top trauma cases at these 41 facilities were:

• 920 stabbings

• 767 blunt assaults

• 117 motor-vehicle related injuries and 136 pedestrian related injuries

• 65 gunshot wounds

• 762 accidental injuries and 75 self-harm injuries

Most of the reported trauma cases were seen within the Cape Metro at facilities such as Delft CHC (201), Kraaifontein CHC (193), Paarl Hospital (171), Gugulethu CHC (164), and Khayelitsha Hospital (163).

EMS crews responded to a total of 7 934 emergency calls across the province. The top 10 incidents logged were:

• 1 331 incidents of persons suffering from pain;

• 969 assaults with a weapon;

• 695 respiratory complaints;

• 526 physical assaults;

• 502 abdominal complaints;

• 465 obstetrics;

• 387 neurological;

• 362 diarrhoea/vomiting;

• 274 Musculoskeletal; and

• 256 incidents of accidental injury

EMS crews also attended to several calls in permanent identified Red Zone areas such as Beacon Valley (69), Tafelsig (69), Hanover Park (29), and Chicago (16).

On the busy provincial roads, the EMS responded to 149 transport-related incidents of which 69 involved pedestrians, 71 were light motor vehicles, 4 involving motor cyclists, 3 involving minibus taxis, and 2 involving cyclists. Search and Rescue teams also responded to 17 incidents, of which nine were on Table Mountain.