Security forces not responsible for tavern safety, says ANC’s Pule Mabe

Guarding taverns is not the national security cluster’s job, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said on Sunday.

“The [job of the] national security cluster of SA is not to safeguard taverns. Because the security cluster of the country is not responsible for these establishments that sell alcohol in villages and townships, the expectations is that those that run those establishments have got to go an extra mile to protect their patrons,” said Mabe.

He was responding to questions from the media on whether the ANC is concerned about the high number of shootings and criminal activity plaguing the country.

This is after the brutal shooting of 15 people at a tavern in Orlando East in Soweto in the early hours of Sunday morning.

TimesLIVE reported earlier that four people were shot dead in a mass shooting in Pietermaritzburg and another shooting at Katlehong’s Mputlane Inn Tavern.

The incidents come two weeks after 21 underage children died in Scenery Park, East London.

Mabe said not expecting the national security cluster to guard taverns will assist in not making it a security issue.

“Just imagine, we have got to deal with gender-based violence, violent crimes and suddenly we must establish a dedicated unit in the police service that now looks at taverns. It’s not going to be possible.”

Mabe said it is strange that these incidents are occurring at this rate.

“Just a week ago we had 21 young people who passed on at Enyobeni tavern in the Eastern Cape. In Soweto there are 15, and there was an incident in KZN. All of these incidences are happening at taverns. It’s coincidental but must worry us.”

Mabe said these were acts of criminality that could cause a security crisis in SA.

“Maybe it’s something that needs to be looked into by the relevant security establishments. Not just that, even the ones that regulate these places.

“We have got to discuss the minimum threshold for you to get a licence to operate a tavern. We also need to discuss what kind of security measures are you putting in place to protect your patron.”

On whether the ANC in Gauteng discussed the growing tensions between locals and foreign nationals, Mabe cited immigration policies.

“We need to look at the relevant immigration policies and say, how do we use these policies to ensure that SA’s contribution towards making a better Africa and a better world and silencing the guns towards Agenda 2063 is sustained.

“We have said that we will use forums like the Pan African Parliament, the AU and our contribution at the G7 and Brics to be able to then say, welcoming people who are foreign nationals in the country must be regulated through policy parameters that allow for coexistence.”

Mabe said those who come to the country illegally with “fake papers as if they have achieved some asylum of sort have got to be exposed because they are the ones that are undermining the relationship that we have always enjoyed with foreign nationals”.

SA does not have to entrench antiforeigner sentiments that come across as being xenophobic. “We have got to coexist,” said Mabe. “But we must coexist legitimately,” he said.

He urged communities to work with each other to fight crime.

TimesLIVE