Today we visited the
@SAPoliceService Port Elizabeth Flying Squad, Anti-Gang Unit and K9 Unit in Nelson Mandela Bay, joined by Yusuf Cassim MPL, Retief Odendaal MPL and Cllr Jason Grobbelaar. What we found was deeply alarming.
The Flying Squad, once the backbone of rapid response in the metro, is now barely functioning, operating with only one vehicle for a city of over 1.2 million people. Members without transport sit idle.
The Anti-Gang Unit, is equally crippled. With close to 100 members, it operates with fewer than five working vehicles. Officers have no safe houses, work from unsafe offices, and none of them have completed security vetting. The unit’s annual budget is just R6 million, less than some municipal marketing campaigns, yet they face violent syndicates daily.
The K9 Unit is also under strain. It has 22 operational members and 13 dogs (covering narcotics, explosives, patrol, and search-and-rescue). There are no high-performance vehicles, no dedicated dog transport, and no groundsman, meaning officers clean and maintain kennels themselves. In a city battling a major drug crisis, this is unacceptable.
These failures violate Parliament’s own directives. In July 2025, the National Assembly adopted a report based on a petition from Yusuf Cassim MPL, calling for urgent intervention in Nelson Mandela Bay’s gang crisis. The resolution specifically directed SAPS to rebuild the Anti-Gang Unit and Crime Intelligence capacity. Since then, nothing has changed.
More than 1 000 gang-related murders have occurred in NMB since 2019, including 39 children killed in the last two years. Parliament adopted recommendations to fix this. SAPS ignored them.
We will be taking these findings straight back to Parliament.
The Democratic Alliance expects:
-Immediate restoration of vehicle fleets for all three units.
- Full implementation of Parliament’s 2025 resolution, including expanded AGU and Crime Intelligence capacity.
-Fast-tracked vetting and proper operational support for AGU, Flying Squad and K9 members.
- A ring-fenced operational budget and stronger intelligence coordination.
I will also follow up on the letter by Retief Odendaal MPL to the Acting Minister of Police, calling for urgent national intervention into the collapse of policing in Nelson Mandela Bay.
The
@Our_DA will continue to fight for justice, accountability and a police service that truly protects our communities.
IC