Are new peace officers legal? Experts raise concerns

The newly confirmed status of “peace officers” for Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s crime prevention wardens (CPW) has met with strong criticism with industry heavyweights questioning the legality of Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola’s decision.

Lamola’s announcement followed Lesufi’s request in June for Lamola to grant the CPW, also known as amaPanyaza or “Green Beans’ after their olive overalls uniform, legal status as outlined in Section 334 of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977.

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“The powers to be performed by the persons will then be limited to the powers conferred upon such functionaries and, in principle, relate to the policing of traffic matters,” he said.

About 6 000 amaPanyaza were trained by the Gauteng government to become wardens to assist the police with crime in the province. The crime prevention officers received three months of training.

On X, Tshiamo Ditlamelo noted training was done at metro training colleges at national qualifications framework level 4 and matric was a basic requirement for entry.

“The first training at college was to demonstrate an understanding of the role and functions of a peace officer and traffic warden which is level 4,”

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Ditlamelo said. “The first training was done by the Road Traffic Management Corporation. The second was done by Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) and other traffic colleges in Gauteng.

“It consisted of firearms training, point duty training and stop and approach, Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences training, crime prevention training and law enforcement were all courses done by TMPD.”

Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) executive director Stefanie Fick said the issue was extremely complex because on the one hand, South Africans were screaming for more law enforcement, but what was needed was more law enforcement officers who knew what they were doing.

Fick said there was a science behind policing and it was not just about making people available.

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“Intelligence is extremely important. It doesn’t help to push thousands of people into areas,” she said

“How would a young officer be able to deal with gang violence? That is a specialised field. You are going to put their lives in danger and the general public’s lives in danger.”

A senior policing and social conflict expert, who wished to remain anonymous, said conferring the position of peace officer on these “so-called wardens” only confirmed the assertion they have no legal authority to act like police.

“Authorised peace officers or not, they remain nothing more than glorified constables now forming part of a policing architecture, devoid of strategy, direction, leadership and a plan,” he said.

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“What is worse is that their very existence only serves to continue to undermine already eroding confidence and trust in law enforcement and policing.”

“What does the national commissioner of police have to say about this tragic comedy of law enforcement errors? Let us not forget the police unions who vehemently defended their appointment.”

Action Society director of community safety Ian Cameron said the legalisation of Lesufi’s crime prevention wardens would pose a serious security threat and undermine the public’s respect for the law.

“It is unclear if the training included proper firearms competency and it is very unlikely that any of the candidates were screened for criminal offences. This poses a very serious security threat in Gauteng,” he said.

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Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said it was unusual for the minister and premier to go ahead and appoint the CPWs without some plan in mind and then “going via the department to acquire approval to grant them a certain policing status”.

“There seems to be some agenda that doesn’t make sense. And this is an area of governance where you just do not throw people at the problem,” he said.

“As other policing specialists said, everybody is shouting for more boots on the ground but we need more professional policing at the national and provincial level to ensure there’s accountability and proper processes flowing.”