07/05/2026
Interpellation by Hon. B. Ngqentsu
Western Cape Provincial Parliament – 7 May 2026
Speaker,
It is quite interesting that a senior member of the DA in the calibre of Member van Minen could be preoccupied with whether the MEC has oversight over the SANDF, instead of confronting the real crisis facing our people. This question reflects an obsession with power, not a commitment to public safety.
The lack of commitment to the safety of our people does not surprise us because the privileged Member van Minen and her ilk do not relate with the crisis of violent crime given their location in the White rich suburbs of this province.
Speaker, the Constitution is clear oversight of the SANDF rests with the President as Commander-in-Chief, the Minister of Defence, and Parliament, full stop. The DA-led provincial government must know its lane and stop attempting to exploit a crisis of violent crime for political grandstanding.
The real issue facing the Black majority people of Khayelitsha, Mitchel plain, Manenberg is violent crime that continues to rise, even with the army on the ground. Therefore, a serious, accountable government would be asking how it is strengthening and complementing the joint efforts of the police and the SANDF, not posturing about authority it does not have.
For all to know, when President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed the army, the ANC supported that decision. We were not oblivion of the limitations of the deployment of the army-we understood it as a temporary intervention, not a solution. And the reality on the ground confirms the correctness of our analysis. People are still being shot. Communities are still living in fear.
Violent crime in Cape Town undermines the joint Police and Amry efforts because, crime in the Western Cape is embedded in the chronic crisis of underdevelopment- poverty, unemployment, inequality, and a lack of opportunity. Thus, crime has become an economy of survival. Soldiers cannot fix that.
So, the BIG question to the MEC:
1) Is what is your government doing about the root causes of crime?
1.1.). What are you doing to create jobs?
1.2.). What are doing invest in young people?
1.3.). What are you doing to support township economies? and
1.4.). What are you doing to build social infrastructure?
To the neoliberal DA, oversight is not about chasing soldiers, it is about delivering a coordinated, whole-of-government response that tackles the conditions producing crime in the first place.
Therefore, until you address those fundamentals, no deployment of Soldiers, LEAP Officers, no matter how visible, will bring lasting safety to our people.
I thank you.