Metro poloce enforce law

In its contribution to the mayor's 90-day Accelerated Service Delivery Plan, metro police has charged over 10 000 motorists while it cracks down on enforcing all the City's by-laws.
AS the 90-day service delivery intervention draws to an end, the Johannesburg metro police department (JMPD) continues its interventions, tackling traffic congestion, public transport, illegal dumping, illegal advertising, and safety in parks and open spaces.

JMPD spokesperson Wayne Minaar JMPD spokesperson Wayne Minaar Launched on 27 July, the mayoral Accelerated Service Delivery Plan was introduced by Executive Mayor Parks Tau during his maiden mid-term budget speech, in which he said the first 90 days of office would be about returning to basics, from road maintenance, cutting grass, reducing power outages and cleaning informal settlements, to addressing illegal dumping, among others.

It was also aimed at fostering relationships between the various municipal-owned entities and City departments. In line with this objective, the JMPD linked up with City Power, Pikitup, Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) and emergency management services to roll out a joint clean-up campaign.

Working area by area, City Power is attending to all electricity-related queries, the JRA is filling potholes, and the JMPD is enforcing by-laws, including issuing fines for illegal dumping, among some of the interventions.

In an attempt to improve compliance with road and traffic regulations by taxi owners and drivers, as well as to ease traffic flow and reduce road accidents and fatalities, the JMPD has stopped 10 000 motorists each month over the past three months.

Roadworthy
Roadblocks have ensured unlicenced drivers are taken off the roadA roadblock on a busy roadBetween July and mid-September, it pulled over 4 602 vehicles to check their roadworthiness; 4 698 drivers were charged for driving licence violations; and 10 661 drivers were charged for moving violations, such as skipping red traffic lights, crossing solid lines and overtaking dangerously.

The JMPD removed 1 578 political posters in all seven regions, in the hopes of improving compliance with advertising and signage by-laws. And since July, it has been attempting to reduce illegal dumping. By August, it had issued 244 summons and 886 written warnings, and had confiscated 287 of the 240-litre bins.

According to Wayne Minnaar, the JMPD spokesperson, Pikitup – the City entity responsible for waste management – had recognised 100 hotspots for illegal dumping. The metro police is helping it with the problem in Soweto. The police is also helping City Parks, which is responsible for cemeteries and parks, among others, with safety in parks and open spaces.

City Parks, along with the JMPD, has identified six parks and open space hotspots: Joubert Park, Florida Lake, Thokoza Park, Zoo Lake, Avalon Cemetery, and Smit Street off-ramp.

JMPD has been working hard to ensure Joburg roads are safeChecking for licence violationsBetween July and August, 9 693 vagrants and homeless people were removed from parks and open spaces. Some 124 were removed from plastic shelters, 4 687 litres of alcohol were confiscated from people drinking in public, 514 illegal fires were extinguished, 6 744 people were searched, and 63 people were arrested for urinating in public, said Minnaar.

Budget
In Tau's budget, the biggest ever for Joburg, the JMPD received R1,5-billion to improve law enforcement and crime prevention.

His budget speech, delivered on 29 June, was themed “Focusing on service delivery imperatives and preparing for the city of the future”. It was in this speech that he announced his Accelerated Service Delivery Plan, saying that the 2011/12 medium term budget attempted to balance on-going service delivery imperatives and respond to developmental challenges.

It gave the City an opportunity to assess its service delivery performance and challenges, and review the effectiveness of its programmes.

“Therefore in the next financial year, we will ensure that the spending of the budget focuses on service delivery imperatives and takes into account the medium- to long-term priorities of the City that will be agreed to as part of the GDS [Growth and Development Strategy] process.”