Johannesburg Metro police were expected to work closely with the Honeydew police in an effort to enforce bylaws in crime-ridden areas in the Honeydew precinct.
The established plan of action will ensure the police enforce bylaws while at the same time, assist in fighting crime.
Established crime-ridden areas, specifically in ward 101 are, loitering and drug dealing in Banbury Crossing Village, incidents in Golden Harvest Park, street robberies and muggings in Olivenhout Avenue from Malibongwe Drive to Drysdale Road.
Metro police cluster commander, superintendent Wandile Mrubata said his unit was dedicated to solving the scourge in the area. He was talking at the crime indaba in Sharonlea on 26 October.
He said they would regularly patrol these areas and enforce municipal bylaws. He added that they discovered there was illegal dumping at the Golden Harvest Park and illegal panel-beating at the old municipal building adjacent to Olivenhout Avenue.
“During our last operation we found out that dwellers at a municipal building have illegally connected electricity and water and had started up a panel-beating business,” he said.
Mrubata said they were going to sit with the police to seek strategies that would help address the problem of the drug trade in Banbury Crossing Village. “We will continue to patrol the centre from inside and outside. Although fighting this problem is not easy as we will disrupt the traders,” he said.
He indicated that most people who were loitering at the centre were living at the nursery. “We will continue to do random stop-and-searches along that route. We heard that those loitering people were the ones selling drugs,” he said.
He concluded that some of the strategies that were already planned won’t be revealed to the public.
The ward 101 crime indaba was organised by councillor Dalu Cele in an effort to involve all the relevant stakeholders in the fight against crime.
