The City of Cape Town’s Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security received an update on the functioning of the City’s Training Academy at its most recent monthly meeting, on 6 April 2022.

Now in its 14th year of operation, the college has seen thousands of new recruits and existing enforcement staff members go through its doors for basic and refresher training courses required for municipal law enforcement.

The Metro Police Training Academy received full accreditation under the Local Government Sector Training Authority in 2010 and the Safety and Security SETA in 2011.

As the number of operational staff members across Metro Police, Law Enforcement and Traffic has grown in recent years, courtesy of the City’s continued investment in public safety, the college has proven itself to be resilient and more than able to meet the increased training needs.

However, one of the biggest challenges is a lack of space, which, in recent years, has seen the college redirecting some of its courses from its base in Observatory to other City facilities in Lakeside, but also Chrysalis in Tokai.

As the portfolio committee, we are however very excited about plans to relocate the college to a new site in Muizenberg over the coming years to address the space constraints.

An initial investment of just under R15 million has been proposed for the 2022/23 financial year towards realizing this goal.

The committee was also briefed on plans to expand the existing training modules offered at the college to include an increased focus on soft skill training such as conflict management, anger management and mediation, including sensitivity training to enhance approaches to various situations.

This addition will make the City’s training college the first to introduce this type of training to staff.

Not only is it critical to effective crime fighting, but it also increases the odds of a potential confrontation turning into a conversation instead.

With the levels of crime and associated danger that many enforcement services are faced with on a daily basis, the City believes that this addition to the training module but also the increased investment in our training college is critical to our efforts to make Cape Town safer.

Source: City Of Cape Town