The South African Police Service (Saps) says it was left in the dark about Cape Town’s controversial N2 highway wall.
This has raised fresh questions about coordination between the city and its primary law enforcement partner.
Police knew nothing about the wall
Saps was never consulted about Cape Town’s proposed highway wall along the N2.
This is despite the wall being a major crime-prevention infrastructure project, which apparently has been in the works without input from the country’s primary policing agency.
In a written parliamentary reply to Mmusi Maimane of BuildOne SA, acting Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia confirmed that Saps had been kept entirely out of the loop.
“The South African Police Service was not consulted regarding the City of Cape Town’s proposed construction of a highway wall along the N2,” Cachalia said.
Because Saps was excluded from every phase of the project, Cachalia said it could not definitively say which safety and security concerns of nearby residents and road users would go unaddressed by the wall.
“It is therefore recommended that a detailed response in this regard be obtained from the City of Cape Town as the implementing authority responsible for the project’s design, objectives and anticipated impact,” he said.
Cachalia did outline Saps’s existing footprint in the corridor, noting that officers from the Nyanga and Gugulethu police stations are deployed daily along the N2 and the Flying Squad conducts targeted patrols focused on robberies and contact crimes.
Additionally, he said drone technology is being used in the N2 corridor and the surrounding airport vicinity to enhance surveillance and support coordinated operational responses.
City says stakeholder talks are ongoing
When approached for comment, the city’s MMC for urban mobility, Rob Quintas, did not directly address why Saps had not been consulted before the project was publicly announced.
“Stakeholder engagements are underway and once formal agreements have been reached from all stakeholders, the city will communicate at the appropriate time,” Quintas said.
The response suggests the city is aware that not all stakeholders have been brought on board.
It remains unclear whether Saps is formally part of those ongoing engagements or whether the primary policing agency is still being kept at arm’s length.
City says it has been carrying the policing burden
JP Smith, MMC for safety and security, was candid about the gap between what Saps is providing and what the city believes is needed.
“Security infrastructure is just one part of the safety picture and must be complemented by effective policing and prosecutions,” Smith said.
“Successful prosecutions are dependent on an effective criminal justice system.”
Smith said the city had long been calling for Saps to be properly resourced and had simultaneously pushed for crime investigation powers to be devolved to city law enforcement officers – who, he said, are ready to help build prosecution-ready case dockets in support of Saps and the National Prosecuting Authority.
In the meantime, Smith said the city had been plugging the gap with its own budget, deploying more than 40 new highway Patrol officers on the N2 this financial year.
According to the MMC, this is part of a freeway management plan that sees roughly 100 staff on major highways daily.
“This is part of the broader 700 new officers deployed across the metro as part of a major policing investment by the city,” Smith said.
He added that the city has also made significant investments in safety technology, including CCTV, automated licence plate recognition, bodycams, dashcams and a digital coordination system known as Epic.
Saps remains the primary agency, though it’s under-resourced
Despite the city’s “considerable” efforts, Smith stopped short of suggesting that municipal policing could substitute for Saps.
He was unambiguous about where the primary responsibility lies.
“Saps remains the primary policing agency and must urgently be properly resourced to win the battle against crime,” Smith said.
“At the root of many of the safety challenges faced in Cape Town is an ineffective and under-resourced Saps.”
The admission is significant. While the city has publicly championed the N2 wall as a safety solution, its own safety MMC points to systemic failure at the national level as the deeper driver of crime in the metro. By that logic, the wall is at best a partial fix.
That tension is sharpened by Cachalia’s confirmation that Saps was not even afforded the opportunity to weigh in on a project seemingly designed to address the very crime challenges his department is struggling to contain.
N2 project controversial from the start
The N2 highway wall has attracted sustained criticism since it was first proposed, with detractors variously describing it as an attempt to conceal informal settlements from view or drawing comparisons to the spatial exclusions of the apartheid era.
Critics argue it addresses the optics of poverty rather than its causes.
Smith dismissed those concerns, insisting the city’s commitment to resident safety was not up for political debate.
“The city remains committed to safeguarding our residents and will not be swayed by the opinions of opposition politicians or an acting minister who continues to fail communities across the metro,” he said.
