Warwick Bruce Chapman

Dear Friends (and mischievous others)

The media have cottoned onto this so it is the appropriate time for me to clarify publicly.

Effective end June 2013, I have resigned as a councillor of the eThekwini municipality and as Deputy Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal. I have been given an opportunity to apply my professional skillset to a new position which has been created at the DA’s National Head Office in Cape Town, where I will be overseeing the party’s various information systems.

I have served the public in the capacity of ward councillor for nearly five years now. My introduction to elected politics as ward councillor for Pinetown, and then Glenwood / Umbilo was a baptism of fire. Both are challenging communities with difficult issues to fight, and know I am a better public representative for these experiences.

The media, egged on by the mischievous others, have cooked up another story about why I am leaving. Don’t worry about that. The truth boils down to me making a change for myself that allows me to make a more strategic and hopefully more effective contribution to the party and cause I signed up for in late 2007.

I have lived and worked in Ballito and Durban for the past 25+ years of my life and I look forward to the change of City, and the challenges of a new role.

The decision to resign and accept the position offered to me was extremely difficult to make. I have invested myself heavily in the challenges facing the Glenwood and Umbilo community, and in the political challenges facing the Democratic Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal. Also extremely important to me is the role I play at the Natal Settlers Memorial Homes as the head of a team of passionate individuals who have been setting that crucial social welfare organisation back on the right track over the past year.

I have thus negotiated to stay on in my current position for an additional two months in order to ensure those responsibilities are handed over as effectively and responsibly as possible.

I will miss the people of Glenwood and Umbilo, the wonderful Bulwer Park, the warm ocean and Goundens’ famous bunny chows.

At heart I will always be a Glenwood boy, and an ambassador of KwaZulu-Natal.

I remain committed to the Democratic Alliance as this country’s greatest hope for clean and effective government.

Yours faithfully
Warwick Chapman

Statement by
Ronnie Veeran
DA eThekwini Mayoral Candidate

24 April 2011
Release: immediate

Note to editors: This is a plan to resurrect the eThekwini Metro Police jointly presented by DA Mayoral Candidates for eThekwini and Cape Town, Ronnie Veeran and Patricia de Lille, drawing on the successes of the DA government in Cape Town.

The Durban Metro Police are tasked with enforcing our municipal bylaws supporting the SAPS with crime prevention. A good Metro Police force will supplement the work of the SAPS.

Durban Metro Police have currently 1056 vacant posts out of about 2200. Cape Town had a 25% vacancy rate when the DA took over, which they regarded as a crisis, yet with a 48% vacancy rate the Dubran Metro Police spokesperson says there are “more than enough” staff (Independent on Saturday, 23 April).

As a result of the shortage of staff in the Metro Police, communities are being affected:
· When the Umlazi Metro Police branch was recently established, the core members of the Chatsworth Anti-Drug Team were moved to Umlazi as a result of a shortage of officers, effectively disbanding the team.

· The community of K-section KwaMashu had to stage protests before council would take measures on the notorious Nkonjane Rd which has claimed the lives of schoolchildren as a result of speeding. Speeding must be controlled through effective enforcement by speed timing.

· On an evening in April only 1 Metro Police officer instead of 14 were on duty for the entire Pinetown and Queensburgh areas.

As a result of a properly implemented urban management strategy and a revitalised Cape Town Metro Police, crime in the Cape Town CBD was reduced by 90% within 2 years of the DA taking government. The same strategy is being rolled out across the Cape Town Metro with a view to reducing crime in the rest of the Metro.

When the DA took the City of Cape Town over from the ANC in 2006, the Metro Police was dysfunctional and had been crippled by cadre deployment. The number of officers had been reduced by 800 members. One out of every four posts in the metro police service in Cape Town was vacant and there were severe shortages of equipment and specialised skills. The Metro Police had a reputation for corruption, inefficiency and ill-discipline.

A DA government in eThekwini will immediately invest funds to attracting experienced officers to the Metro Police. We will ensure they are properly equipped and trained. We will establishe specialised units to combat crime, copper theft, drinking and driving and speeding.

In the DA’s first 100 days in office, emergency funds were utilised to fill critical posts in the metro police. Extra money was allocated for police equipment. In the DA’s first financial year, the Metro Police received a bigger capital budget than it had had for the entire five years before that.

Cape Town now has a Metro Police engaged in more real police work than any other Metro Police in the country. They don’t just enforce by-laws. They go after the criminals who terrorise our communities. And they catch them.

Breaking the Chain: The DA’s Plan to Fight Drugs in eThekwini

Drugs and drug addiction are having a devastating effect on the eThekwini community. Residents of Chatsworth, Phoenix and other suburbs such as Claremont, Umlazi and KwaMashu have been caught in the stranglehold of notorious drugs such as sugars and whoonga.

Widespread addiction to these drugs has contributed to the tearing of our social fabric, broken families and a high incidence of crime and criminality. The local community bears the burden as dealers battle for turf and addicts look for every opportunity to fund their habits. In some suburbs of the city addicts have even resorted to preying on HIV patients to steal their ARV’s for the production of whoonga.

In Chatsworth the Metro Police were making exceptional breakthroughs in the fight against drugs and drug dealers and yet the unit’s special drug team was effectively disbanded when its 5 members were moved to the new Umlazi station, leaving the drug lords to operate with impunity. This is yet another indictment of how the effectiveness of our Metro Police is compromised by the poor management which has left the force with a 48% vacancy rate and thus only half the personnel it needs.

The DA-led city of Cape Town has demonstrated that the Metro Police, which are funded by the ratepayers of the metro, can be an enormously effective force in combating the sale and distribution of drugs. Since taking power in the city the DA created a specialized Metro Police unit to tackle the drugs scourge.

As a result, arrests for drug-related crimes soared from 180 in the 2005/6 financial year to a massive 955 in 2009/10 financial year. This has also contributed to the reduction of the overall crime statistics as drug-related offences are often linked to more serious offences such as murder, assault, theft and armed robbery.

A DA government in eThekwini would immediately set about creating a specialized Metro Police unit to tackle this problem head-on. This unit will consist of highly trained and equipped officers and an efficient intelligence gathering arm.

This unit would partner with the SAPS, private security companies and community policing fora to identify where drugs are being sold, how they are entering the city and the drug lords responsible for selling them. Partnerships will also be sought with the prosecuting authority to ensure that arrests, evidence gathering and subsequent prosecutions result in watertight convictions.

Keeping the lights on: the DA’s plan to stem cable theft

The theft of electricity cables within the eThekwini municipal area has reached dramatic proportions, severely hampering the operation of electricity infrastructure in the city. Officials in the eThekwini Electricity Department have revealed to the DA that there are an average of 15 incidents of cable theft per day, resulting in 300 – 400 light poles being blacked out and plunging key areas into darkness.

The theft of copper cables in Cape Town was a major problem. The Democratic Alliance city administration took decisive action and established the “Copperheads” unit within the Metro Police. This specialised unit was tasked with combating cable theft as well as seeking out scrap dealers and individuals who were buying stolen cables. The unit has been extremely successful in prosecuting those who commit crimes of sabotage against the City of Cape Town. Such is the success of the unit, that the cost to the city to replace copper cabling has dropped from R20-million pa to just R500 000 pa.

We would take the following action steps within three months of taking office:

· establish a “Copperheads” unit within the Metro Police. This unit will be staffed and equipped to fight those criminals who target municipal infrastructure and bring them to justice.

· motivate for the re-classification of the theft of electricity cables as sabotage to municipal infrastructure. This classification of sabotage carries a far heavier sentence in the courts.

· table a bylaw amendment to regulate and scrutinise scrap dealers who are buying stolen municipal infrastructure. Should scrap dealers be found to be in possession of stolen municipal infrastructure their business licence will be revoked.

Clamping Down: road safety begins and ends with enforcement

One of the Metro Police’s core responsibilities is to enforce the laws on our roads and keep a lid on drinking and driving. Speeding and drunk driving account for the majority of road fatalities in South Africa. According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation 45% of weekend fatalities are directly a result of drunk driving.

The key to changing driver behaviour is ensuring regular and strict enforcement of the law. Drivers must always be wary that they could get caught if they speed, drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs or break traffic laws.

We will ensure that:

· the culture of minor traffic offences and reckless driving is eradicated through strict enforcement of traffic laws and by-laws;

· an annual community survey is conducted to find the roads must in need of speed enforcement and the necessary applications are made to the Director of Public Prosecutions to enforce the speed limit on these roads;

· an annual community survey is conducted to establish major sources of drunk driving such as taverns, night clubs, sporting events and beach front venues and regular road blocks are set up as a deterrent.

Community Participation: collaborating with SAPS and the community

The primary role of crime prevention and investigating crimes falls with the SAPS who are a Provincial and National run competency. Our Metro Police service do play a role in crime fighting, and must play a greater role going forward. Some communities run neighbourhood watches and vibrant Community Policing forums but many others do not.

In order to enhance collaboration:
- in partnership with SAPS, functioning Community Policing Fora will be established in every policing area in the Metro and will engage in real crime prevention activities;
- Metro Police specialised units will be re-established and revitalised to combat specific crime types and Metro Police will be required to participate in all CPF activities in their area;
- we will increase communication and collaboration between CPF leadership, SAPS station commanders and Metro Police commanders;

Any criminal who enters a neighbourhood with an intention to commit a crime is unable to do so without being seen by a member of the community. Improved communication between community members, the SAPS, private security and Metro Police can be the difference between a crime being committed or prevented.

Summary

Durban Metro Police are grossly understaffed and lacking specialised units. We would urgently address the staffing, equipment and training shortages and establish specialised units to tackle specific crimes. We will emphasise the enforcement of bylaws by the Metro Police in order to combat the present culture of petty criminality.

We want the Durban Metro Police to be regarded as the Guardians of our Metro. Only through effective law enforcement can we build an efficient municipality which delivers for all.

Because the DA delivers for all!

Sithuthukisa wonke umuntu!

Ons lewer dienste aan almal!

Media Enquiries:

Cllr Ronnie Veeran
DA eThekwini Mayoral Candidate
082 371 7698

Mbali Ntuli
Mayoral Spokesperson
072 118 8556

NOTE: This statement is here because I played a role in creating it while eThekwini Campaign Manager in the 2011 Local Government Elections.

Statement by
Cllr Ronnie Veeran
DA eThekwini Mayoral Candidate

08 April 2011
Release: immediate

It has been revealed that only one female officer, who is not a driver, was available to cover the merged Pinetown and Queenburgh policing areas on the night of 5 April 2011. Obviously no police station can operate under these conditions. Today the DA has learnt that of the 2200 posts in the Metro Police, 1144 are currently vacant (48%). If any sector of the public service is not properly staffed, it cannot deliver the service expected of it.

The DA believes that part of the problem is born of the consolidation of the Pinetown Metropolitan Police station with that of Queensburgh which, despite claims to the contrary, has had the effect of reducing the resources available to the police, rather than increasing then.

The question now is what must happen if the situation is to be turned around and the various offices be capacitated to deliver? The DA believes it has the solution based on best practice in Cape Town, where the DA-led administration has turned the Cape Town Metro police into a model of excellence.

When the DA took the City of Cape Town over from the ANC in 2006, there was already a metro police service. It was dysfunctional and had been crippled by cadre deployment. The number of officers had been reduced by 800 members. One out of every four posts in the metro police service in Cape Town was vacant. There were severe shortages of equipment and specialised skills. The metro police had a reputation for corruption, inefficiency and ill-discipline.

In the DA’s first 100 days in office, emergency funds were utilised to fill critical posts in the metro police. Extra money was allocated for police equipment. In the DA’s first financial year, the Metro Police received a bigger capital budget than it had had for the entire five years before that.

Cape Town now has a metro police engaged in more real police work than any other metro police in the country. They don’t just enforce by-laws. They go after the criminals who terrorise our communities. And they catch them.

Since the DA took over Cape Town, crime in the city centre has been cut by 90%. Cape Town is the safest city in the country. Last year, there were 955 arrests for drug-related crime, compared to just 180 arrests five years previously. The expansion of the metro police, coupled with a massive investment in social infrastructure like parks, libraries and youth centres, has cut down the murder rate in Khayelitsha by 33%.

Given the chance, the DA can bring this delivery record to eThekwini. It is quite clear from the situation in Pinetown and Queensburgh that this kind of attention to detail and turn-around strategy is needed if the crime rate is to be reduced and the police fully capacitated. The DA has the solution, it is based on its delivery record and, if given the chance in eThekwini, it is a service we can deliver to all of the residents.

Media Enquiries:

Cllr Ronnie Veeran
DA eThekwini Mayoral Candidate
082 371 7698

Michael Beaumont
Provincial Director
083 776 2760

1. Tell us a bit about your background, childhood, family and schooling.

My parents are Ex-Zimbabwean and came to SA in 1980. Family all live up in Ballito. I’m in Pinetown in order to best do my job as Ward 18 councillor.

2. How did you get involved in local politics, and what motivated and inspired you to do so.

I used to be a supporter of the ANC. During the 2000′s that waned to the extent that I joined the DA in 2007 out of the blue. Fortunately I made it onto their excellent Young Leaders programme for 2008 and that set the tone for the years to come. In 2009 after the General Election, I took an opportunity to stand in a ward where the councillor had moved to Province and was elected in June 2009.

3. Who are your role-models.

My parents are examples of the sort of people that make the world a better place. Mandela would never have been able achieve what he did if there wasn’t a significant number of reasonable people out there willing to choose the middle road. So on the one hand, my parents inspire me to be good, wholesome and to cherish family. And leaders like Madiba inspire me to have conviction, believe in the prosperous South Africa we want become, and fight for the balance our democracy requires before we will see that.

4. What did you do before you became a councillor.

I ran at IT business for 10 years. I am a bona fide geek turned politician.

5. Tell us a bit about your family.

My brothers are both younger than me, though there’s only 3.5 years between Barry, the youngest, and myself. My parents were both deeply affected by the Rohdesian Civil War, my mother losing her legs as a teenager from a landmine blast and my father being the victim of a few blasts while on service. Much of my motivation comes from not wanting to see that sort of violence happening in South Africa as it has over most of post-Independence Africa. We can and must be different.

6. Do you enjoy your job.

I find my job both infuriatingly frustrating and very rewarding. I am frustrated at the crippled state of our local government, the low quality of services which result and the wastage of money which occurs through poor management and corruption. I am infuriated regularly by the cheap politics employed in the face of severe poverty and suffering, and I am regularly incensed by the liberal use of the race-card. However, there are so many people out there both in need of help and willing to help. Many city officials do everything they can to do the best job they can, and many people can be helped by me directly. The knowledge that I can directly make a difference for people who really need it as well as the desire to see the gradual improvement in the quality of our City government provide me with all the motivation I need to counter the negatives.

7. Have there been moments in your career when you thought you were going to fail at what you were doing.

I have failed. I failed to ensure that Pinetown SAPS was provided with the sort of quality senior leadership it needs to fight the significant crime wave in the area. The tradeoff was that several significant operational improvements have taken place as a result of the pressure and focus. I still maintain that Pinetown SAPS needs a station commander who is passionate about the morale and performance of his/her officers in the significant fight against crime in the area.

That is my biggest failure so far. I am certain I will fail again. Will I fail in my bigger mission to help make South Africa the prosperous Rainbow Nation which Madiba helped us dream about? Perhaps, but I sincerely doubt that. Our democracy will see the balance it so desperately needs in the coming decade and through that will come the good governance required to service the needs of the people and create the opportunities people need to make their lives better.

8. What was the proudest moment in your career.

I couldn’t say really. I’ll be proud when I know the future of our country is secure.

9. What was the most embarrassing moment in your career.

I really messed my first interview as a potential council candidate. As my MP says, I really screwed it up. Thank goodness they chose to give me a bash anyway.

10. Tell us something about you the public doesn’t know.

I attend the KZN Philharmonic at the City Hall as often as my calendar permits. I find the performances liberating in the same way that doing a hard workout in gym is – you need to sit still, be quiet, listen and take it in until its finished.

11. What are your goals, ambitions, and future plans.

Have a family. Inspire people to live a life of peace and love (Yes, I am an Amakhosi fan). Be a major contributor to securing our democracy and ensuring our government is the first truly good government South Africa has ever known.

12. What are your likes, interests and hobbies.

I rowed a lot at university and after. I enjoy overlanding (4×4) especially north of South Africa. I have a 1990 Land Cruiser and am about to buy a 1980 Mercedes, so I guess I have a thing for old cars. I am a genuine geek, and administer several Linux servers and applications for projects within the party.

13. What message would you like to give to the people in your Ward for the upcoming election.

If you are not yet registered to vote or if you have moved since the last election, please register 5/6 March. Then on election day, please vote on who you think will govern eThekwini best. Leave the rest of the issues for dinner-table debates. We need good governance – vote for the party you believe has a proven track record in delivery.

As of Saturday 22 January, 2011 all Metro Police personnel based at the Pinetown station were informed that station is closing and they are to report to Queensburgh on Monday 24 January. Ward 18 and Pinetown councillor, Warwick Chapman, was not consulted in the plan whatsoever. Chapman has placed significant fpocus on crime and law enforcement in the greater Pinetown area and the Democratic Alliance believes finds it unacceptable that he was not consulted about the plans.

Cllr Chapman said the plans had been confirmed this morning, “The West Regional Commander, Dir. Kay Naidoo, confirmed on the phone to me this morning that the instruction had come from head of Metro Police, Eugene Nzama. The City Manager, Dr Sutcliffe, said he did not know of the plans but would bring them up at his City Manager’s meeting this afternoon and revert. Anonymous reports from officers suggest that SAB and a Dir. Chin from Durban will be setting up an alcohol and drug testing facility in Pinetown using the premises of the Pinetown Metro Police.”

An officer who wished to remain anonymous asked expressed concern for the delivery of services in the area and the lack of consultation, “It is official, we are all to report to Queensburgh. There are so few members left at Pinetown already that are operationally we struggle. Who is going to help the community now in the area? There was no report to or discussion with anybody in the community.”

Councillor Chapman believes that the complexity of the Pinetown area requires a Metro Police station in the middle of Pinetown to ensure a quick response to emergency situations or law enforcement. For the past year Chapman has been petitioning Metro Police management to deal with the shortage of Captains and improve the productivity of the Pinetown Metro Police station. “What we need is more quality officers, better leadership and more discipline! Pinetown is the covergence point of 7 provincial roads, has a massive concentration of taxis and pedestrians fighting for space with heavy trucks and delivery vehicles constantly flowing through the area’s industrial, commercial and residential zones.”

Instead of moving the Pinetown Police Station further away from where it is most needed, what Pinetown actually needs according to Cllr Chapman is more effect law enforcement. “If you consider the mix of different property zonings in the area, the very large parks such as Crompton and Lahee Parks, the sheer number of illegal businesses, the complex traffic and pedestrian environment and the general problem in the area of crime, what Pinetown actually needs is more Captains and more focus on bylaw and traffic enforcement, and definitely not for the station to be shut down.”

Response times, crucial to traffic management and bylaws enforcements are going to be severly affected if Metro Police officers serving the Pinetown are going to be based from the Queensburgh Metro office. “There is not reasonable justificant for why the station should be closed. Instead of being able to be on the scene within a few minutes, Metro Police are now going to travel for 15 to 20 minutes or more depending on traffic to get to the centre of Pinetown from Queensburgh. The consequences of this drastically increased response time will inevitably be poorer law enforcement and more traffic problems.”

– Warwick Chapman (Cllr Ward 18) | 083 7797 094 | ward18@ethekwini.org | http://warwickchapman.com