The aims of the DA-led Western Cape provincial government to devlolve policing powers have hit a brick wall, but MEC Reagan Allen insists that Bheki Cele can devolve policing powers.

Bheki Cele has claimed that the devolution of policing powers isn’t within the purview of his department, but Allen has pointed to the Police Act and certain aspects of the Constitution highlighting the authority of the Minister to devolve administrative responsibilities.

Last week at the funeral of Gugulethu community policing forum deputy chairperson, Lulama Dinginto, Cele shirked responsibility by saying that it is a matter for the Minister of Justice:

"They know what to do, they know it's not going to happen, for them, it's just to make noise and they made to be their target. Maybe if you shouted 'Cele!' you are heard better and they must stop that. What we need to do now is to fight crime. Even the resources, they get more than anybody."

MEC Allen responded by stating that "The national minister is seeking to deflect. Reliance could be placed on the provisions of Section 99, read with Section 206, of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa to assign to the relevant provincial ministers such powers and functions contained in the South African Police Service (SAPS) Act, 1995."

Regardless of official responsibility, Cele has already made statements demonstrating the national government’s intention to strip powers from metropolitan police, arguing that the police force needs to be a single unit, in line with a certain interpretation of Constitutional provisions.

The relative independence of the Cape Town metropolitan police has been a cause of friction with the provincial branch of the national police force for the past decade, with SAPS regularly refusing to cooperate in calls for backup or in criminal investigations into organised crime.

This period of disharmony has come at the same time as massive cuts in police reservists, with numbers falling by over 90% since Cele took charge of the department.

Additionally, an official pact between the ANC government and the gangs of Cape Town since 2011 has led to speculation that the subsequent acceleration of the homicide rate is a result of a national criminal conspiracy.

The infamous assassination of Anti-Gang Unit chief Lt. Col. Charl Kinnear, at the hands of gang-connected assassins with alleged cooperation of SAPS officers in 2020 followed shortly after comments by Kinnear that the provincial head of crime intelligence, Major-General Mzwandile Tiyo, was colluding with organised crime.

Western-Cape based civic organisation Kaapse Forum has opened a constitutional court case to have the power of the provincial Premier to call a referendum read into the current Referendums Act, in line with Constitutional provisions for such.

They aim to ask the DA-led provincial government to hold a referendum on the devolution of policing powers, though the powers conferred by the success of such a motion would also enable the province to call a referendum on independence.