Law enforcement agencies from across Gauteng’s 11 municipalities have signed a deal to operate under one banner, premier Panyaza Lesufi said during his state of the province address this week.
This means the Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metro police departments would no longer be bound by their geographic boundaries or jurisdictions in upholding law and order in SA’s financial and economic heartland.
“This decision means that if there is a major crime in the West Rand, we will take law enforcement agencies from Tshwane, Midvaal and Ekurhuleni and deploy them to the West Rand to flush criminals out, without worrying about municipal boundaries,” Lesufi said during the address in Pretoria on Monday night.
However, local government experts and union leaders were sceptical of the plans, saying they “did not make a lot of sense”.
Independent Municipal & Allied Trade Union president Keith Swanepoel said: “We have no comment to make, it’s a political statement he made. We are going to check what the implementation programme would be. Certainly, there are legislations that would prohibit that, anyway. That would be our comment.”
SA Municipal Workers Union Gauteng secretary Mpho Tladinyane did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wits University School of Governance senior lecturer Kagiso Pooe said the plan “sounds nice, but it doesn’t quite make a lot of sense”. The provincial government needed to address constraints facing law enforcement agencies in the province, instead of “creating another paperwork without addressing the real issues”.
SA Local Government Association president Bheki Stofile said while the constitution encouraged other local government spheres to capacitate each other, at the face of it “there may be other laws that need to be reviewed” before this became a reality.
Lesufi said the provincial government was working with the private sector through Business Against Crime SA and the private security industry to address crime in the province.
“Together with the private sector we have identified and profiled 442 kingpins that are causing the worst crimes in our province. These kingpins are responsible for cash in transit [robberies], kidnappings, hijackings, rented murder, ATM bombings, blue light gangs and business robberies. Instead of waiting for them to commit crimes, we have put full-time surveillance around them. Of the 442 we have already arrested 50 and we are monitoring the rest closely,” the premier said.
“In addition to the national co-operation, Gauteng will go a step further by signing a memorandum of co-operation with the SA Police Service and municipalities to ensure that we effectively fight crime. Each municipal law enforcement agency will be able to operate across boundaries.”
In October 2024, Lesufi announced that the provincial government and the metros of Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and Johannesburg had signed a co-operation agreement with police minister Senzo Mchunu aimed at enhancing crime-fighting efforts.
The province’s municipalities meet weekly to review and enhance safety plans, and had agreed to contribute the footage of their CCTV cameras to the provincial command centre. This includes footage from private security agencies.
Lesufi has said he was frustrated with crime. The “level of crime in our province keeps me awake at night. Crime remains something that worries me big time.”
mkentanel@businesslive.co.za
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