Public Safety hits back
The reasons given by the Democratic Alliance (DA) councillors, who are calling for the resignation of Clr Sello Lemao, are nothing so compelling as to call him to resign.
This was stated by Mr Bongani Nhleko, speaking on behalf of Clr Lemao, a member of the mayoral committee for public safety.
He made this statement in reference to the DA’s call for the resignation of Clr Lemao, who’s staff has apparently been inefficient in providing reports and information at committee meetings.
Mr Nhleko denied these statements, saying no one is deliberately withholding information. There is nothing to hide.
He attributed the lack of reports to a “command and control problem”. He said this is being addressed and reports will be provided on September 21.
Mr Nhleko said the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) 10 Plus programme is a new concept, and with any new concept, the implementation thereof will have some teething problems.
“The strategic objectives of the new approach to law enforcement require a paradigm shift, systematic thinking and collaborative and co-operative mechanisms across all law enforcement disciplines internally and externally. The previous, fragmented-approach, to law enforcement based on professional disciplines, business units, disintegrated performance standards and targets has produced devastating results on the city’s law enforcement and the general management of the urban environment. Since the implementation of the ward deployment, the concept has shown improvement in the collaboration between JMPD, ward councillors and municipal-owned entities. The JMPD is making a positive impact on citizens. One of the objectives is to develop mechanisms to enhance the image of the JMPD,” said Mr Nhleko.
The programme has led to dedicated resources from all law enforcement agencies in all wards. The programme has also formalised institutional arrangements for multi-agency collaboration, which includes SAPS, community police forums, neighbourhood watches and security sectors.
Other successes include the development of weekly ward performance tracking sheets that highlight time distribution, number of vehicles stopped, people searched, number of citations issued, number of arrests, complaints attended and bylaw contraventions dealt with.
Mr Nhleko said the resource allocation for the JMPD 10 Plus programme has been extensively deliberated, presented and discussed at all relevant forums.
“The deployment of officers to deal with bylaw issues can differ from minor infringements to major infringements that require specialised intervention. Resource allocation is the prerogative of the director of operations. There will never be enough manpower at any given time, but manpower can be available for incidents, event, marches and enforcement. The deployment of resources for incidents from other wards is the prerogative of the director of operations. The deployment will depend on the severity of the situation. When an incident is resolved, officers are redeployed at their respective wards,” said Mr Nhleko.
When asked if it is true that officers are unavailable to attend to bylaw contraventions during weekends, Mr Nhleko said these allegations are false.
When asked about concerns that JMPD’s lack of action in addressing bylaw contraventions is impacting on the SAPS, Mr Nhleko said, “The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) has 41 South African Police Stations that JMPD collaborates with on a daily basis. JMPD is responsible for the co-ordination and development of a crime prevention strategy for the city, development of delivery mechanisms and systems for crime prevention and bylaw enforcement and guidance, operation and the maintenance of an efficient and effective metropolitan police service. This indicates that all the cases the JMPD deals with are ultimately referred to the SAPS to be registered on the Case Administration System (CAS). The matter is taken to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA),” he said.
Mr Nhleko believes Clr Da Rocha’s incident with the metro police officer needs more clarity to provide factual feedback on the issue.
If people contact an officer and he is unavailable to attend to the complaint, phone the JMPD on 011 758-9650. Officers are deployed on a 24 hour, seven-day-a-week basis and are divided into five shifts.
