The Advertiser recently had the opportunity to interview the Ekurhuleni MMC for Community Safety, Frans Mmoko, for updates on what is going on in his departments, EMPD and DEMS.
Pedestrian deaths over Easter weekend cause for concern
According to the MMC, the City’s initiatives to reduce road accidents over the Easter long weekend, fatalities, in particular, yielded positive results.
“There had been a drastic decline in the citywide road death toll compared to the same period in 2019, thanks to the men and women in uniform who went all out to ensure the safety of road users.
“However, as the City, we are concerned that Ekurhuleni is one of the cities with the highest number of pedestrians who died on the roads over the weekends in question.”
Mmoko pointed out that the carnage is influenced by several factors, including drunk driving, speeding, overtaking recklessly, driver attitude as well as vehicle, environment and road factors.
Harsher measures
Mmoko said he supports the Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula’s call for stricter measures including harsher penalties to deter motorists from disregarding the traffic laws.
“It has become evident that people don’t take the existing measures seriously. They don’t see the issuing of tickets as punitive measures against their behaviour. Instead, they think it’s the municipalities’ way of collecting revenue.”
EMPD to get bodycams
The City of Ekurhuleni welcomes the Department of Transport’s plan to equip traffic officers with bodycams to help
strengthen policing on the roads.
“Issuing our police officers with body cameras and other ICT equipment is the direction the City is planning to take, as this will serve as a useful tool to support them when carrying out their duties.
“People need to understand that how we policed the streets 20 years ago differs from how we should be doing it in 2021. Criminals swiftly adapt to new technologies and are operating in an advanced and complex manner.
“So for law enforcement to stay a step ahead, we need to move with the times. Some of the old ways have proven to be a failure today, and failure to introduce new plans means we are doomed to failure.
“Police lives are in danger daily so we must take a keen interest in protecting both our members and communities.”
New EMPD precincts
The MMC was quizzed about the delayed project to build a new specialised EMPD precinct in Boksburg, and the delayed relocation of the Benoni precinct to Northmead.
He responded: “The Boksburg precinct is a multi-year project and plans are still in place to complete the project, and that is dependent on the availability of funds.”
He, however, pointed out that challenges are emanating from Covid-19, but the City is adamant that the project will be completed.
About the Benoni precinct, the MMC said construction was progressing satisfactorily and will be completed towards the end of the next financial year. Funds for the project were moved to the next financial year, which begins on July 1. “It is not that we budgeted money for the projects and someone misused it.”
Lack of body armour
Responding to previous complaints about inadequate bullet vest for EMPD officers, Mmoko said the metro has been gradually making headway in improving the situation.
This is after discovering the shortcomings in the City’s integrated planning process.
“It was not because the city was unable to provide adequate body armour for the newly recruited officers, but there could have been delays with the procurement process.”
Recruitment
The metro plans to recruit more officers to deal with crime efficiently in the City, preferable to having officers on the ground 24/7.
He said a recent study conducted exposed serious weaknesses and risk within the department as far as policing the city is concerned.
“Excluding undocumented immigrants, we are a city with over three million people that we need to police, but we only have about 1 600 EMPD officers. If you look at the police to citizen ratio, we are far behind compared to other
metros.
“We have then developed a strategy to recruit further so that we can at least be in the region of about 4000 to 4500 officers on the ground.”
He said to become a metro police officer, you must be under the age of 35 with matric and driver’s licence, and be without a criminal record.
DEMS is the pride of the City
Mmoko described the City’s emergency management services (DEMS) as the pride of the country, saying there is no disaster department in the country that is best equipped like Ekurhuleni in terms of the fleet.
“Yes, we may not be where we want to be because this fleet has got a lifespan. Except for those minor problems, we have got the best fleet replacement and management plan that is budgeted for yearly.
Delayed ambulance services
Responding to questions regarding the delayed ambulance response, Mmoko admitted that the City is aware of complaint raised by residents after the service was recently provincialised.
“We are aware of the public outcry, but people need to understand we were providing that service on behalf of the provincial government as an agency and given a subsidy. But the province had decided to take over that function.
“Of course there was a discussion in the council where it was resolved to allow the executive mayor to engage with the premier and find a common solution. We will await those deliberations before we decide on what will happen to our grounded fleet of ambulances.”
Successes
The MMC told the Advertiser that the City’s efforts to deal with criminal activities in the City led to several successes including confiscations of dangerous weapons and apprehension of most wanted suspects.
“Through our normal routine police visibility, we have managed to help reduce the crime rate in some crime hot
spots.
“We have worked with the SAPS on various operations, including Okae Molao.”
War against electricity and cable theft
“We are very concerned when it comes to the series of cable thefts, mostly taking place during the nights.
“These are some of the issues that we are trying to address through deploying officers on the ground to monitor our infrastructure 24/7, instead of relying on members who are on standby.
“When it comes to issues of electricity theft, watch this space and you will see the results of our newly devised anti-electricity theft programme.
“We have already identified all the problematic areas.
“Furthermore, we have also introduced a new campaign called Reclaim our Cities. Criminals taking over our City will soon become a thing of the past.”
Additional resources
In efforts to make the EMPD a strong force to be reckoned with, the department recently procured special police vehicles appropriate to combat crime, even in volatile scenes. These vehicles include six police nyalas, and a
water canon to be used in public order policing to disperse or control crowd.
Covid-19 policing and effect on members
The MMC said dealing with Covid-19 has been a very difficult journey, but they all remained and continue to be
resilient.
“It was very tough, we would get calls left right and centre about companies, businesses and individuals that were not complying, and we made sure that all those complaints are attended to regardless of our fears of catching the virus and taking it to our own families.
“Initially, we found that some people were in denial carrying on with their normal lives as if there was no pandemic or lockdown restrictions in place.”
Mmoko revealed that the licensing department was the most affected sector where they were hit by quite a high number of positive cases among staff members.
“In the worst scenario, we have lost several members. We lost some members on the ground with their boots on serving the nation.
“It was the most painful thing to go through in the line of duty, but we didn’t retreat.”
Bad apples within the police force
The MMC stated that there are making headway in identifying and dealing with criminal police officers within the department.
“There are several officers that we have arrested, including the officer who was involved in an attempted hijacking of a truck transporting face masks on the N12 in Boksburg.
“There is no way we can allow criminals in uniform to taint the sterling job done by the majority of our members.”
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