The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) has called for Clr Lemao’s resignation in response to the lack of reports submitted, which were requested by the DA in a Section 79 Safety Committee meeting.
The committee apparently requested information on numerous occasions relating to Emergency Management Services (EMS) and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD). This information was apparently not made available to them by officials.
DA members first walked out of last month’s meeting and repeated their protest by walking out a second time, this time at a meeting held earlier this month.
Clr Timothy Radebe, the shadow MMC for public safety, said, “We are tasked with being an oversight committee to JMPD and EMS. This mandate is extended to ensure the strategies and budgets of these departments translate into the safety of the residents of our city. If you sit in this meeting you would believe we have no crime or challenges at all. However, if you consult with employees and managers in the departments and you benchmark the performance of this committee over the last decade, you would get a vastly different story.”
The committee includes Modderfontein ward councillor Clr Darren Bergman, ward 32 and Clr Carlos da Rocha, ward 66.
In an article published in the NEWS’ sister publication, Joburg East Express last month, Clr Bergman stated that committee reports are essential to give them a realistic picture of safety on the ground. He said mistakes or lack of clarity can lead to the loss of property or life.
At the time, Clr Da Rocha said every resident is affected by the lack of information provided at these meetings. He believes people need to know if the JMPD 10 Plus programme is working, how many fines were issued, how much money JMPD is making and what bylaw enforcement is taking place.
Last week he said unanswered questions, at the committee meetings and with regards to recent incidents in his ward, are worrying.
A few weeks ago he called an officer to address a problem and did not get any help. A man was illegally pasting posters advertising male sexual health solutions on street light poles.
Clr Da Rocha followed the man and called a JMPD officer for assistance. The officer said he was on his way to attend to an accident.
“I understand that an accident takes priority but I asked the officer to send someone to arrest the man. He said there was nobody else because all officers where on operations. Cleveland SAPS attended to my complaint but they could not arrest the man because it is not their mandate to arrest people who contravene the bylaws.
“I called the metro police officer and told him all I needed was an officer to arrest the man. He said he could not help me. What happened to the deployment of my 10 metro police officers? I was told that councillors would have officers in their ward 24/7. What need is there for all the officers to go out on an operation, leaving no one available to the public in certain ward? What happens if there is a serious bylaw contravention?” he asked.
While councillors battle officials for reports, JMPD officers are also unhappy with certain conditions they are working under. Some officers, who wished to remain anonymous, are unhappy with having to answer to residents who are aggravated by “their lack of service delivery”.
They say they are thrown in the deep end to answer to the community when it is the decision makers who should be answering. According to some JMPD officers, the JMPD 10 Plus programme is not what people believe it is. Residents think there are 10 JMPD officers covering a ward at all times. According to some officers, only two members of this programme are available in a ward at any given time. They work shifts.
A JMPD officer said there are several occasions where even the two officers are not in the ward due to “operations held outside the area”.
Another officer said there is a lack of manpower. Some officers who are part of the JMPD 10 Plus programme are working in several wards under several officials. There are a number of bylaw contraventions in each ward and although they apparently do their best, they cannot be everywhere at all times. They said manpower shortages are impacting on service delivery. As a result, problems such as windscreen washers harassing motorists, illegal dumping and illegal trading cannot be addressed timeously.
Officers also alleged that JMPD does not attend to bylaw contraventions during weekends.
One officer said the person who Clr Da Rocha contacted for help should have addressed his concerns.
The DA members of the safety committee called on the mayor to take swift action to prevent further management disasters in the committee tasked with dealing with the safety of citizens.
Committee members also want an audit of how and why the requested reports could not be made available to the committee and to ensure all outstanding reports are served appropriately to councillors at the next safety meeting.
