A FEW months ago, Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi, was the butt of jokes. He had just announced a bold plan on how he intends to reposition the provincial government to tackle crime during the State of the Province Address (SOPA). He made it clear that there would be no holy cows in the fight against corruption, lawlessness, and crime.
“Our province is the home of heartless and merciless criminals. They do as they wish. The issue of crime should be our apex priority. We should unleash all the resources at our disposal to tackle crime,” he said.
Inevitably, this got tongues wagging from various sectors. Central to his intentions was the need to invest in technology and have more foot soldiers on the ground in the townships, informal settlements, and hostels to fight crime in the province. It was not only the targets that he had set that made him the source of jokes and subjected him to severe criticism.
The timeframes that he had set the provincial government to get all the resources he wanted appeared unrealistic.
How on earth was he going to get these resources within such a short space of time, some retorted. Some, correctly so, cited the government’s long procurement process as an impediment to Lesufi’s intentions.
One political party dismissed this as pure electioneering and a “dream”. One daily newspaper dismissed this as “Lesufi’s fancy war against crime”.
To back up his intentions, Lesufi moved swiftly to increase the budget to fight crime in the province from R750 million to R8 billion over the next three years. He directed his executive to move with speed to secure all the resources needed. He is a man of here and now.
In truth, South African with its high crime levels require bold leaders who are willing to employ creative ways to fight the scourge of crime. At least, that is what Lesufi is all about. That South Africans are not able to walk the streets at any given time without fear of criminals is an anomaly.
Crime prevention is a multi-sectoral issue that requires a new multi-pronged approach backed by private security companies. Gauteng continues to be affected by urbanisation and inward migration because of desperation for employment opportunities. The ever-growing population of the province is now 16 million.
This, therefore, means that the law enforcement agencies are stretched on the ground. The application of various impact technologies to conduct policing, also known as e-policing, to back up the work done by law enforcement agencies on the ground makes good sense. The intention is to make the entire province policeable.
This past weekend Lesufi responded in a bold fashion to his critics at a ceremony held at Giant Stadium in Soshanguve, Pretoria. He unleashed 4 000 crime prevention wardens to work in townships, informal settlements, and hostels to be a force multiplier to assist in crime prevention.
He also unveiled helicopters, high-performance vehicles fitted with hi-tech equipment and high-calibre drones to bolster crime prevention in the province.
He announced that plans were at an advanced stage to arm Gauteng citizens with e-panic buttons for immediate response by law enforcement agencies.
“We believe we are ready to start our mission to make Gauteng safe. We believe we are ready to present the commitments we made to our people. It was a clear commitment to face criminals head-on,” Lesufi said.
While the war to defeat crime is far from over, Lesufi’s administration has demonstrated the political will to work with the police and all law enforcement agencies in the province to tackle crime head-on. At least, someone needed to be bold enough.
It is none other Lesufi who fired the first salvo at his critics by delivering on what he had promised during his SOPA within a short space of time.
The war to tackle crime in Gauteng is taking a new direction. It is an interesting space to watch. It is a difficult task, but Lesufi promises to face it head-on.
Ofentse Morwane is the Director for Communication Services in the Gauteng Department of Community Safety. The views expressed here are his own.