JP Smith disputes PA candidate’s claim that Cape Town SWAT unit has failed

Cheslyn Daniels, the Patriotic Alliance’s mayoral candidate in Cape Town, claimed in a Facebook post that the city’s specialist SWAT unit was no longer operational because it could not be funded and its members were unpaid. JP Smith, the city’s safety boss, rejected the allegations and said the unit had remained operational. He said new recruits completed their training and formally qualified at the end of the previous week. Smith suggested the claims may have come from people who had failed to qualify for the unit.