The Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Sizakele Nkosi–Malobane, accompanied by senior members of the South African Police Service and key stakeholders such as SABRIC, Gauteng City Region Observatory, and Statistics South Africa engaged in a dialogue on how to improve safety in the Province.
The seminar was held at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Center in Boksburg.
The two days session culminated with the adoption of a strategy to turn the tide against crime in Gauteng.
Addressing the scourge of crime remains central to the Department of Community Safety as a mandate in the Gauteng City Region.
In the past few weeks, two reports were released by Gauteng City Region Observatory and Statistics South Africa which paints rather a disturbing picture of the state of crime in our Province.
MEC Sizakele Malobane said: “The release of these reports came in the time when Gauteng was in the process of re-engineering our crime fighting machinery which started with the adoption of the; Gauteng Safety Strategy, Back to Basics approach to policing, the establishment of Gauteng Law Enforcement Agencies Forum and holding of Law Enforcement Quarterly Review Sessions to assess their performance and also to make strategic interventions in areas where they are lacking.
“Our machinery is well oiled and is indeed starting to bear fruits,” she said.
From July 13 to 14, the safety department, other stakeholders and experts within policing environment discussed and assessed their work to ensure improvement as envisaged on the Gauteng Safety Strategy.
The end result of this session is the development and adoption of the Provincial Policing Plan.
The plan entails the following:
– Clear definition of leadership that is required at various levels within policing agencies which will ensure strong command and control and inculcate the culture of discipline and integrity
– Detailed plan on how policing will be modernized taking into account integration of various existing technological infrastructure required to improve policing in the province
– Ways to improve police coordination at local level as part of maximizing the impact of available resources
– Addressing resource challenges in the province. This will include creative ways of improving poor turnaround time of servicing vehicles at mechanical garages.
– Introducing robust ways of improving integrity within law enforcement agencies. This will be supported by a campaign such as “Take back your tiger, I am a good cop”. This is a social call to Gauteng citizens to partner with government in rooting out corruption and restoring integrity within the policing environment.
Malobane said: “We remain resolute in our quest to ensure Gauteng citizen are and feel safe. I am confident that this plan will be a game changer in ensuring integrated policing, improving policing and rooting out crime in the City Region.”
