Cape Town’s political head for Safety and Security, JP Smith says they didn’t sideline the police during recent talks about a possible response to incidents of kidnapping and extortion in the Mother City.
Last week, City bosses met with an international consultancy that specialises in this type of crime.
This engagement advised the Metro on how to deal with the apparent increase in the number of business owners being taken for ransom.
It was held without the police being present, despite SAPS being the only entity that has investigative powers.
But Smith says this was only an exploratory meeting with the consultancy group.
It’s understood that the organisation has met with the police in other provinces.
Smith says these crimes are getting out of control.
“it is important that we start finding other ways to deal with the issues. It impacts on all our lives, our safety, the growth of our city, and impacts on everything our city depend on in terms of safety. So if these are not effectively dealt with, then City can’t stand just back and hope things will get better”.
The Mother City has seen a spate of kidnappings in recent months.
On Friday, businessman Khalid Parker was shot and killed on Imam Haroon Drive, in what was suspected to be a kidnapping attempt.
A day later, five people were arrested for the attempted kidnapping of a Chinese businesswoman in Ottery.
