Gauteng aims to tackle construction mafia, land invasion and vandalism

Gauteng’s minority government led by premier Panyaza Lesufi is set to unveil four specialised units in its crime- fighting efforts aimed at pushing back against cable theft, land invasion, vandalism of economic infrastructure, and the construction mafia. 

Tabling the community safety department’s budget vote in the provincial legislature in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Lesufi — who got the nickname “Panyaza” from playing soccer while growing up in Thembisa — said the fight against crime in SA’s economic and financial hub was taking shape. 

Gauteng, which contributes about 40% to GDP, is grappling with high youth unemployment, violent crime, corruption, dilapidated infrastructure and poor service delivery. 

The community safety portfolio was moved to the office of the premier when Lesufi announced his 10-member provincial cabinet, which excluded the DA, the second-largest political party in the provincial legislature. The ANC, which received 36.4% of voter support during the May 29 general elections, drew seven key positions in the cabinet, sparking fears about the sustainability of the government of provincial unity. 

On Wednesday, Lesufi said the decision to house the community safety department in his office was aimed at co-ordinating crime-fighting efforts and pushing “back the frontiers of crime in our province”. 

If the government could not get its efforts right, “this province will be a safe haven for criminals”, and vandalism of state infrastructure would continue. “If we can’t consolidate our fights against crime, we will lose all the necessary investments and job opportunities in our province,” said Panyaza, who also is the ANC’s Gauteng chair. 

“We are thrilled and excited [about] our budget of R2.3bn. Of this, R1.1bn will be allocated to our elevated priorities [of] recruiting more [personnel] to fight crime, to provide more tools of trade to our law enforcement agencies, and to lease more helicopters so that the fight against crime can be intensified,” he said, adding young people would be trained as drone pilots to police communities. 

The provincial government would soon establish “new strategic units” within law enforcement agencies. 

Lesufi said that from September 1 there would be no new land invasions in the province. “We are establishing a new unit that will protect all land in our province and to ensure no-one invades land they do not own in our province.” 

He also said: “We are also establishing a new unit that will protect two critical installations in our province: Eskom facilities including transformers ... [and] Rand Water installations to ensure free flow of water in our province is not disturbed by criminal activities. 

“We are establishing a new anticable theft unit. We are also releasing a unit that will protect all those who want to bring investment and construct new buildings in our province. We can’t allow people to hijack construction sites or allow people to stop new investments because they claim they have a right to stop these new investments.”

Lesufi said executive mayors from the province’s 11 municipalities had agreed to establish a central command centre to “co-ordinate the fight against crime from one centre in our province” led by Gauteng police commissioner Maj-Gen Tommy Mthombeni. 

“This will ensure all our institutions are co-ordinated, and that all our resources are directed to the same enemy as we fight crime in our province.” 

The minority government wanted to reclaim the Joburg CBD from criminals and 3,000 military veterans would from August 27 be “unleashed” to join the fight against crime. This, with 7,000 crime wardens — known as AmaPanyaza — would increase the provincial government’s law enforcers to about 10,000, he said. The province has a population of about 16-million. 

Gauteng has a total of 38,290 law enforcement agents, including the police. The SA Police Service accounts for 26,000 members; Joburg metro police 4,000, Ekurhuleni police department 2,000, Tshwane metro police 3,000 and Rand West City local municipality 233, among other municipalities. 

On successes achieved to date since the minority government was unveiled, Lesufi said 3,768 undocumented foreign nationals had been repatriated; 1,721 drug lords were arrested; 388 unlicensed taverns were closed; and 275 illegal mining activities were stopped.

mkentanel@businesslive.co.za