Prof Jaap de Visser looks into the WCape Community Safety Act
It reads: Premier Helen Zille has signed the Western Cape Community Safety Act into law. The national Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa has come out strongly against the Act and promised to challenge it in the Constitutional Court. The Minister's spokesperson, Zweli Mnisi is reported as saying that it "seeks to make the South African Police Service a provincial institution where accountability is determined by different structures as and when it is deemed suitable"
This goes to the hard of the division of powers between the national government and the provinces. The issue was hotly debated during the drafting of the Constitution. This was in a time when the violence of the early 90's, which had a distinct regional dimension, was fresh in everyone's memory. The ANC was vehemently opposed to any security powers being exercised at provincial or regional level.........