Scores of metro police, law enforcement and police officers descended on Bellville’s central business district (CBD) last week at the City of Cape Town’s launch of their new CBD enforcement team.
The team consists of 16 members from Metro Police and Law Enforcement, who have been assigned solely to Bellville’s CBD.
This forms part of a bigger project by the City, which was started in 2022, and aims to deploy officers in key CBDs to “inrease visible policing, support primary agencies and to ensure that by-laws are adhered to.”
The launch in Bellville, which took place on Wednesday, was also attended by JP Smith, Mayco member for safety and security.
“In the space of two hours, they (the new enforcement team) already arrested six suspects. Including two suspects who were caught trying to fit false number plates onto their vehicle, often the indication of preparing a vehicle for a more serious crime.”
Smith says they are rolling out the project in more areas after a trial period in Cape Town’s CBD.
So far, similar projects have been launched in the Mitchells Plain Town Centre and Wynberg CBDs.
“Over the coming months, they will work in hand with other roleplayers using an integrated approach, including SAPS, the local central improvement district and the Department of Home Affairs, to help clean up the business hub and wrestle back control of the Bellville area.”
Restoring respect
He says every area is unique and needs to be understood before the battle can be won.
There are many problems in Bellville CBD, like “the problem of undocumented foreign nationals, unregulated informal trading and vagrancy, leaving the area unkempt and unappealing to consumers.”
Last week, during the walk-about, Smith and his team spoke to many residents and shop owners.
“Shop owners complained how illegal, informal traders would set up directly outside their premises, selling their same offerings but at vastly reduced pricing, since they were free from the same overhead costs which lawful shop tenants were needing to cover.”
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Many lawful businesses have since had to vacate the premises, which has landlords needing to desperately reduce the required rent, “thereby attracting a different segment of the rental market, further impacting negatively on job creation.” All of this has created a downward spiral, which breeds other illicit activities, like drug usage and the trading of stolen property. “During an armed robbery in Claremont on Friday evening, within an hour, one of the stolen devices was tracked to a fast food outlet in the Bellville CBD before the device signal was lost. This is the effects of degradation that we are now moving to urgently unravel, as we rejuvenate the Bellville CBD.”
Smith says there is a lot of work ahead.
“To assist them, regular integrated operations will be held along with the SAPS, who have also assured us of good relationships they hold with DHA, and how the added resources from the City will now help them focusing on the vast amount of undocumented foreign nationals in the area.”
