Watch out criminals: vehicle recognition, drone tech and more to hit Gauteng townships

Mamelodi and Soshanguve are two of the areas in Pretoria which have been earmarked for a mass roll-out of 24-hour manned CCTV cameras.

The Gauteng government is spending R173-million to recruit 6 000 crime prevention wardens as well as to procure 10 drones, 50 vehicles and 500 000 panic buttons among other tools.

Gauteng Department of Community Safety, Hlulani Mashaba, said the province was hardening its efforts on preventing crime by the use of wardens and deployment of technology in the fight against crime.

“The department continuously monitored the effectiveness and efficiency of the police in the province and saw a need to improve community policing and strengthening safety mechanisms within Gauteng communities.”

Mashaba said the identified interventions could realistically address the safety issues as identified by citizens at high-crime hotspots.

He said the interventions were a strong measure to ensure visible policing was improved.

Mashaba said the wardens would ensure intelligence was gathered in communities to tackle lawlessness through heightened enforcement.

He said they would help prevent:

– Land invasion and illegal occupation of land, working with the departments of infrastructure and human settlements,

– Prevent incidents of damage to public and essential infrastructure, and

– work with schools to provide necessary support and response.

Now in training! The 6000 strong force to patrol each and every ward in our communities. Best wishes to our recruits as you embark on this crucial task of fighting crime, corruption lawlessness and vandalism pic.twitter.com/5ghZaY3EY5

— Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) February 1, 2023

“The wardens will ensure police visibility at ward level, timeous response to reported crimes, interact with community structures and other sources to provide early warning.”

He said law enforcement agencies, together with private security industries in Gauteng, would be responsible for the CCTVs across strategic places in the province.

“All areas that are regarded as TISH (townships, informal settlements and hostels) such as Mamelodi, Soshanguve, will be targeted and later on be rolled out to most suburban areas,” said Mashaba.

He said the CCTVs would be manned on a 24-hour basis to ensure that they never were sabotaged, vandalised or stolen.

“The CCTVs will be linked to numberplate recognition technology. This will enable law enforcement agencies to recover stolen or hijacked vehicles and also stop criminals in their tracks. Tshwane has been riddled with crime with even the police recently falling victim to a hijacking.”

As we prepare to install high quality CCTVs across strategic places in Gauteng. pic.twitter.com/d8UlUMHaoX

— Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) January 12, 2023

Mashaba was referring to an incident in which a police officer driving a police van was robbed and hijacked by three men in the north of Pretoria.

The officer was dropping off two crime victims at their homes when he was hijacked.

After dropping off the second victim, the officer was accosted by three men who drove him to Winterveldt where they abandoned the vehicle. The officer was robbed of his belongings.