Gauteng provincial minister of community safety Firoz Cachalia will provide feedback on the crime operation he launched six months ago at the end of January, his spokesperson said on Monday.
”A detailed evaluation will be undertaken later this week to identify the successes of Operation Iron Fist and to establish what challenges still need to be overcome,” said Phumla Sekhonyane.
”In line with the [provincial minister’s] commitment to give the public feedback, [he] will convene a press conference to inform the public about the outcome of the operation and will respond to all questions then.”
Sekhonyane was responding to calls from political parties and the media for the provincial minister to release crime statistics.
She was also responding to an article in the Citizen newspaper on Monday in which the provincial minister was reminded of his pledge to resign if Gauteng crime statistics had not decreased in the past six months.
”On July 11 2006 the [provincial minister] launched Operation Iron Fist. This policing strategy was aimed at intensifying policing to respond to a spike in certain crimes that had been apparent since April 2006.
”The six-month period ends on January 11 2007, which is this Thursday. A detailed evaluation will be undertaken then and the [provincial minister] will provide feedback towards the end of the month,” said Sekhonyane.
She refused to comment further, saying that he would respond to all questions at the press conference.
”I can’t comment on that issue. I’m not exactly sure how the [provincial minister] is going to handle this,” said Sekhonyane.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance on Monday said the public should be given the opportunity to decide whether Cachalia had performed adequately.
”To make that judgement, we need to be given crime statistics,” the party’s spokesperson on safety, John Moodey, said.
”If Cachalia is to have any credibility he should prevail on the national minister [Charles Nqakula] to hand over the statistics for Gauteng so we can judge his performance,” he added. — Sapa