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Today in Gqeberha, I joined thousands in marching from Gelvan Park to the SAPS 10111 Centre in Schauderville to demand urgent action against violent crime in Nelson Mandela Bay.

This march is for every family who has buried a loved one, every police officer failed by a broken system, and every community that refuses to accept gangsterism, extortion and murder as normal.

The DA is calling on President Ramaphosa to appoint a permanent Minister of Police without delay. This weekend marks one year since the Acting Minister was appointed, while South Africans continue to pay the salary of two ministers.

The suspended Minister still earns over R2.6 million per year while sitting at home. This is enough money to employ eight full-time detectives, who could help to put criminals behind bars.

South Africa must fix every broken link in the criminal justice chain. We must catch criminals through professional policing, detectives and intelligence. We must convict them through working dockets, forensics and prosecutors. And we must clean up the police by getting the criminals out of SAPS so SAPS can get the criminals off our streets. Catch. Convict. Clean up.

A DA-led national government will professionalise SAPS, back honest police officers, hold SAPS leadership publicly accountable for results, and put victims ahead of connected criminals.

I believe Nelson Mandela Bay can work. I believe South Africa can work — for everyone.

Not just for the powerful, not just for the politically connected, but for every parent who wants their child to walk safely to school, every entrepreneur who wants to trade without extortion, and every community that still believes this country is worth fighting for.

Issued by Geordin Hill-Lewis - Leader of the Democratic Alliance