The DA-led Western Cape government is expressing dissatisfaction with a draft national policy that could restrict municipal police services' powers.

The Civilian Secretariat for Police Service initiated the National Policing Policy development in October, proposing to place metro police services under national police competency rather than at the local level.

This follows longstanding efforts by national police hierarchy to protect organised crime in the Cape, and wilfull refusal to cooperate with anti-gang efforts, often leading to the deaths of local officers, such as Lieutenant Colonel Charl Kinnear, who was assassinated after alleging corrupt links between organised crime and the office of provincial police intelligence head Major General Mzwandile Tiyo.

The City of Cape Town's mayoral committee member, JP Smith, called the policy "diabolical and irrational," arguing that it undermines local crime-fighting efforts. He emphasized the negative impact on communities relying on local police to supplement the South African Police Service (SAPS).

Cape Town's Metro Police Department, operational for 22 years, faces potential curtailment of its powers. Smith vowed to oppose the proposal, threatening to take the matter to the Constitutional Court if the national government proceeds.

MEC for Police and Community Safety Reagen Allen criticized the policy for centralizing powers and disempowering metros, urging the public to reject it. The DA has long advocated for devolving policing powers to the provincial government and municipalities.

Police Minister Bheki Cele dismissed concerns, stating that metro police is constitutionally mandated to work with SAPS under the national police commissioner's direction. He suggested that the issue is more political than related to safety and security.

These comments follow an attack on provincial efforts to devolve police powers, to free the province from the corrupted national police service, which has seen crime climb inexorably since Bheki Cele took over the police service, leading to homicide figures not seen for over 20 years.

The DA has recently attacked efforts by the independence movement, spearheaded by the VF+, to devolve powers to the Western Cape. Rejecting the Peoples Bill, which would leverage ANC-signed international treaties respecting regional autonomy to give control over police and other functions regardless of national policy, they continue to push their Western Cape Provincial Powers Bill, which will set up a commission to ask permission from the ANC-run central government for these powers, which have been consistently denied to them as a matter of policy.

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