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Cape Town – The ANC-led government is "hell-bent" on destroying the city’s very functional metro police, Mayor Patricia de Lille claimed on Thursday.
Commenting on the proposal for a single police service, she said: "We will be fighting the incorporation of the metro police into the SA Police Service [SAPS] as high as the Constitutional Court."
In a sit-down interview with News24 on Wednesday, she said the city's police supplemented the work of the SAPS.
"Government is just hell-bent on destroying whatever is working."
The proposal formed part of the ANC's recently released discussion documents ahead of its upcoming national general council in October.
It stated that the objective of a single police service was to "maximise effective policing", and that the resolution was in the process of being realised.
"The proposal provides for all because the municipalities get to keep the municipal police and the SAPS gets to exercise central command and control over the metro police chiefs," the document read.
The proposal was included in a draft white paper on the police that was released by the police ministry in March.
The draft white paper said the Constitution called for the establishment of a single police service. It quoted Section 206(7) which states: "National legislation must provide a framework for the establishment, powers, functions and control of municipal police services."
De Lille said the city could not launch a challenge until President Jacob Zuma had assented to such a bill.
"[Only] at that stage can we go to the high court and challenge it because the metro police is contained in our Constitution so, if they want to take away the metro police, they first have to amend the Constitution."
