Pretoria - Criminals have been warned of a new breed of crime fighters in every neighbourhood in Gauteng.
Premier Panyaza Lesufi, who unveiled the unit yesterday during a media briefing in Midrand, said 4 000 crime prevention wardens would be deployed to every ward in the province from May 1.
The wardens, he said, were part of a new Gauteng government initiative to ward off crimes in townships, informal settlements and hostels, CBDs and businesses.
The crime-busters were ready to hit the ground running by patrolling for 24 hours in every ward and working in tandem with law enforcement authorities.
They would have two shifts; the first one starting at 6am to 6pm and the second from 6pm and proceeding until the next morning.
Wardens would be armed and their other tools of the trade would also include motor vehicles, vans and radios.
Lesufi said on Sunday the province would host an official pass-out ceremony for them at Giant Stadium in Soshanguve.
His announcement comes after he had made an undertaking four months ago that the province would recruit at least 6 000 wardens to fight crime head-on in the province.
The government, he said, was unable to train 6 000 wardens due to a number of factors, which included unavailability of venue to train such a huge number at the same time and verification of criminal records, resulting in the removal of other candidates.
He announced that a new recruitment process has started to make sure that the government reaches its target of 6 000.
Those who will be graduating tomorrow underwent training in constitutional law, criminal law, the Criminal Procedure Act, crowd management, among others.
Wardens would be appointed in terms of Section 334 of the Criminal Procedure Act, which declares them as peace officers, who will be able to present evidence in a court of law.
“There will be no single township, no single informal settlement, no single hostel, no single ward that will be left without being attended to,” Lesufi said.
He said the government was deploying the “force” to strengthen the work of the police and that “our people can begin to walk freely in our parks, in our streets and on their way to work, either going to train stations or taxi ranks”.
He said priority would be given to police stations with high crime rates and high level of gender-based violence.
“We will work closely with the SAPS and also we will work closely with other institutions that have similar programmes,” Lesufi said.
He said the initiative would be the first in the province and that other provinces have already shown interest in learning from Gauteng and implementing it.
He expressed concern that there was crime happening literally every minute in our province, perpetrated by protesters of service delivery vandalising public infrastructure.
“We need to ensure that people can trust our province; they can invest in the province. We need to ensure that those with plans to reside in our province can trust that their families are safe,” he said.
Lesufi expressed confidence that Gauteng was ready to demonstrate its commitment to facing and confronting criminals head-on.
One of the wardens, Brendon Petersen from Toekomsrus, said he was unemployed and struggling to get a job before being part of the unit.
He said he went for fitness training, which was hard, intense and mindset changing.
He expressed hope to translate the lessons he learnt into making sure his community was safe.
“I am ready to hit the street and I am ready to make my community a safe environment,” he said.
Another warden, Ntokozo Ngubane from Benoni said: “We are here to serve our communities. We have lots of crime happening in our communities. Our young children are using substances, so we are trying to avoid those kinds of things. We will be going to schools and our clinics because our public clinics are not safe anymore.”
Pretoria News