OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Cape Town | Thursday
THE gathering of intelligence is to be stepped up significantly as national and provincial government deploys massive resources to combat the wave of bomb attacks on the Cape Peninsula, says provincial community safety minister Hennie Bester.
Bester told a news conference that traffic police would also have to be deployed to play a role in preventing bombings, while places which had been identified as high risk areas will be better monitored and safeguarded. He emphasised that the national, provincial and local authorities had committed themselves to closer co-operation to curb the wave of terror.
While police have not yet accused anyone of the latest attack in Cape Town’s city centre on Tuesday, injuring five women and a man, the organisation People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) has been implicated as having been behind previous bombings.
Pagad has denied any involvement, saying that the spate of bombings could be a government ploy to steamroll stringent new anti-terrorism legislation through parliament.
Cape Talk radio claimed it was tipped off about the bomb shortly before it exploded by a man who demanded the release of jailed Pagad Members, but the organisation said it would only pursue the release of its members via legal channels.
Bester claims that the security forces have “good information” on exactly who is responsible for the bomb attacks, but “it is not expedient to announce that information at this stage”.
Police are still studying security camera footage of the stolen car in which Tuesday’s bomb was placed, driving into the city. They have not disclosed whether it has been possible for them to identify the driver from the tapes.
Business organisations say the bombings – there have been 18 in public places in the past two years – will make it difficult to attract investment into the city and is chasing away tourists.
Crime and justice unit head of the Institute for Safety Studies, Antoinette Louw, was quoted in Cape newspaper Die Burger as saying it was remarkable that nobody had claimed direct responsibility for the bomb attacks, because in classic cases of terrorist activities an individual or organisation usually took responsibility.
Louw said she believed the aim of the Cape bombers was evidently to heighten the level of public fear by remaining unidentified.
“When people feel that they are no longer safe, the impression is created that the law enforcement agencies are powerless. The question then remains, who gains by this?”