eThekwini puts plans in place to address public fears about crime and grime in the CBD

The city council says it will be increasing the number of metro police officers in the city to increase police visibility.

eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, Picture Leon Lestrade

Published Apr 21, 2022

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DURBAN – ETHEKWINI municipality is putting plans in place to address crime and grime in the city centre.

It said it wanted to encourage people and businesses to invest and live in the city.

It announced the forming of a metro police task team that will target crime hot spots and the recruitment of new metro police officers.

The city council says it plans to recruit about 200 metro police officers as part of its efforts to improve safety and address crime and grime in the city.

This will increase the number of metro police officers to about 3 000.

The city council says it needs about 5 000 to have a full complement in the unit.

Addressing the media recently, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said the city council has to address the issue of crime, and public safety.

“When it comes to fighting crime and grime, we have intensified our cleansing programme for the CBD to get rid of crime and grime.

“We call upon informal traders to work with us to keep our city clean,” he said.

He said keeping the city clean and crime free was key in attracting more business into the inner city.

“As well as residents to come and reside in the inner city, we are anticipating that if all these programmes can go well we can attract around 450 000 people to come and reside in the CBD.

“For this reason, we have deployed a dedicated team of metro police personnel targeting various crime hotspots in the CBD, and to enforce traffic and business by-laws of the city, this is the work that has been started, we are responding to the issue of crime so that we are able to reduce criminal activity taking place,” he said.

He said the heightened police visibility will go a long way in reducing incidents of crime in the city and as part of bolstering crime fighting initiatives, the municipality is finalising the appointment of 200 new metro police officers to increase crime prevention, this is our annual target every year we recruit 200 metro police.

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