Crime-fighting unit ready to fight crime in Gauteng informal settlements
The unit launched on Saturday with 6 000 Crime Prevention Wardens deployed in communities, especially in informal settlements and hostels, to protect residents and fight crime from May 1.
Kwatsaduza – The Gauteng Provincial Legislature’s portfolio committee on community safety welcomed the newly launched crime-fighting unit in Gauteng by Premier Panyaza Lesfufi and MEC Faith Mazibuko.
The unit launched on Saturday with 6 000 crime prevention wardens deployed in communities, especially in informal settlements and hostels, to protect residents and fight crime from May 1.
The unit is expected to reduce the scourge of crime in Gauteng that continues to rob residents of their rights to freedom and peace.
The initiative is a replica of what was historically known as street committees, where community members organised themselves to provide safety and security in their neighbourhoods.
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Unlike street committees, the initiative is government-led and funded. Government is concerned about what seems to be an over-reliance on it to provide peace and security in communities when there is little done by residents to assist the government to fight crime.
Therefore, the committee called on the residents of Gauteng to organise themselves and participate in programmes such as CPFs to augment the government’s efforts to fight crime effectively.
The portfolio committee on community safety’s Bandile Masuku said, “The fight against crime in our communities can only be won if residents play a more proactive and effective role in working with the police to resolve issues of crime and create environments where everyone is and feels safe at all times.
“We are concerned that some residents who, instead of welcoming and supporting the newly deployed crime prevention wardens, took to social media and started body shaming some of them.
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“The committee condemns this behaviour because it only serves to degrade and humiliate others whose only crime is committing to serving and protecting their communities,” he said.
Masuku added that the community should welcome these wardens with open arms and provide them with the necessary support to execute their responsibility of creating a safer Gauteng.
During the launch, the Premier of Gauteng Panyaza Lesufi said the province would install CCTV fitted with facial recognition, e-panic buttons, and legal guns chipped with trackers to identify and locate firearms should they be stolen.
Over 6 000 e-panic buttons were distributed to community patrollers who had tested their efficiency.
