Lesufi should rather have empowered police with R50 million spent on peace wardens

11 August 2023

The Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi, should rather have used the R50 million that was spent on training 6 000 peace wardens to provide the police in the province with essential resources.

Although the police's budget comes from national government, the Gauteng government should have spent the additional R50 million on empowering the police to perform their duties better.

It is general knowledge that the police in Gauteng do not have enough vehicles, weapons, ammunition and even stationary.

In some cases, police members must pay for fuel out of their own pockets or use their private vehicles to respond to crime scenes.

At some police stations, police members do not even have basic stationary items, like pens and paper, at their disposal.

Instead of giving 256 brand-new BMW vehicles to peace wardens with a mere three months of training under their belt, the vehicles should rather have been allocated to police stations with an urgent shortage of response vehicles.

In reply to a question by the FF Plus in the Gauteng Legislature, Lesufi indicated that the Provincial Department of Community Safety will have to cover the costs of litigation and damages if claims were to be lodged against peace wardens for unlawful conduct towards members of the public.

Whether the Department budgeted for such expenses remains unclear.

The FF Plus welcomes any and all attempts to combat crime in Gauteng, but doubts whether Lesufi's peace wardens will be able to take hardened criminals off the streets.

Gauteng needs a strong and expert police force with enough resources at its disposal to keep residents safe.

Issued by Kobus Hoffman, FF Plus MPL Gauteng, 11 August 2023