The Presidency is considering bringing the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS) directly into the fight against gang violence in the Western Cape.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile revealed this during a question-and-answer session in the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday. He stressed that strengthened, integrated policing at the provincial level is essential as gang-related murders continue to rise.
“Gang violence is causing a lot of trauma in communities, and it’s something that we must deal with decisively. One of the weaknesses is really the problem of coordination… We need to make sure that the strategy of integrated policing is taken down to provinces, we’re doing that as we speak,” said Mashatile.
NATJOINTS comprises the police, the defence force and the State Security Agency, and already serves as the country’s centralised crime-fighting body.
Mashatile said he would “engage with them” to assess how they could be incorporated into provincial operations.
He explained that NATJOINTS brings together intelligence gathering and the broader criminal justice system to ensure that arrests are backed by proper information and lead to successful prosecutions.
He cautioned that without this, people will be arrested one day but “tomorrow you see them back in the streets”.
For this reason, he said, integrated policing must be taken “down to provinces” where most violent crime occurs.
ANC MP Mwelo Nonkonyana pressed the Deputy President on the fragmentation of South Africa’s policing. He argued that this complicates the fight against gangs.
“What plans are in place in the government to address the fragmentation with the policing strategies across provinces such as the Western Cape and Gauteng to enhance coordination and consolidate policing resources to combat crime, gang violence, and to imprison gang leaders and their supporters?”
The opposition also raised concerns about the scale of the violence. DA MP Nicholas Gotsell pointed to growing murder rates, noting that “400 people were murdered in the Western Cape just last month [and] 39 people were murdered on the Cape Flats just last week”.
While acknowledging national operations such as Shanela and Shanela Two, he criticised the government for refusing to extend policing powers to the City of Cape Town.
“The government still refuses to expand policing powers to enable the City of Cape Town’s metro to deploy its investigative and intelligence capacity. Now, this means that your government is turning away real help while communities on the Cape Flats are slaughtered,” said Gotsell.
In response, Mashatile expressed an openness to collaboration, saying the NATJOINTS strategy “requires integration with provinces” and by extension, municipalities.
He added that if the City of Cape Town has the capacity to support operations, “let’s use it” – but noted that several steps would most likely need to be taken.
“It probably has to be executed in a particular way. And maybe that’s where the problem is. You don’t just wake up and say, ‘hey, man, I’ve got intelligence here’. I think there’s a way in which it has to be done. We will check with them because I agree with you that if there’s capacity, let’s use it,” said Mashatile.
He confirmed that he would take up the matter with NATJOINTS, adding that the government should “welcome the resource and… process it” through the national structure.
