Joburg’s acting mayor calls for AmaPanyaza to patrol Braamfontein after death of UJ student

The acting mayor of Johannesburg, Loyiso Masuku, has said the city would be engaging the Gauteng province to ask for the assistance of the Gauteng Crime Wardens or “AmaPanyaza” in combating crime in Braamfontein.

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Calls for police visibility

This comes after the tragic death of at least three people in Braamfontein last week after a sporadic shoot out. Among those killed was an 18-year-old student from the University of Johannesburg.

Masuku said the municipality had also engaged the MEC for Community Safety in Gauteng about other strategies to ensure that students in Braamfontein were safe.

“We can never compromise on security for our students. We have to look at measures like having a satellite police station and engaging the premier about the Mapanya Panya patrolling the area,” Masuku said.

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Masuku said her prayers are with the families of those who died in last week’s tragic shooting.

“We keep those families in our prayers and as a city we care and we will try to ensure it does not happen to another student,” she said.

Process to employ 78 dismissed workers

Meanwhile, Masuku whose term as acting mayor finishes on Wednesday said the municipality was engaging with its legal team and internal HR structures to ensure that at least 78 employees who had been fired by the DA administration return to work.

The workers had been fired after it was established that their contracts were illegally changed to permanent from fixed term contracts. The 78 are part of 130 workers who were dismissed.

“Our human capital department has started a processes where we are verifying the status of the employees. Some are unemployed others have found jobs but we are busy with that process,” she said.

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Masuku said the city was happy with the judgment from the Johannesburg high court which was in favour of the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the workers.

There were fears that the judgment could leave out other workers who were not part of the Samwu’s application.

Despite this Masuku said the city would respect the court ruling.