City of Johannesburg councillors in Region E have called on the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) to intensify its enforcement of by-laws and ensure that those who violate them are brought to book.
The call was made during a Public Safety Forum at Region E’s offices in Sandton on Friday March 10, the second leg of an ongoing campaign spearheaded by Member of the Mayoral Committee for Public Safety Cllr Michael Sun to gather inputs from councillors with the aim of enhancing safety measures and re-evaluating the Joburg 10 Plus strategy.
The 10 Plus plan is a public safety initiative aimed at bringing metro policing closer to communities through ward-based deployments.
The first leg of the forum was held at Marks Park in Emmarentia in Region B on Wednesday March 8.
In Sandton on Friday, Region E councillors identified noise pollution, car-window washing, informal trading, poor traffic management, illegal billboards, illegal parking, illegally occupied buildings, crime and drug abuse as some of the public safety concerns raised by residents.
Councillors said their lack of participation in policy-making committees was frustrating them.
“I think it’s completely unacceptable that there’s never a participation in the issuing of certificates of acceptance to informal traders by the JMPD because we now have to deal with problems raised by our communities based on the things that JMPD issued. We’ve no power over such matters,” said Cllr Chris Santana of Ward 106.
Santana said sometimes when informal traders set up shop in undesignated spots it created disorder.
However, Cllr Bongani Nkomo of Ward 32 disagreed. He said for his constituency informal traders were important as they contributed to the local economy. “They do not have remain informal traders forever because they can be formal traders overtime,” he said.
Cllr Phillip Kruger of Ward 72 said window washers had become a threat to motorists, particularly female drivers.
“When motorists don’t agree for their windows to be washed, the window washers break the windscreen wipers. They tend to get angry when they are not given anything. This is a nightmare for our people.
“We had promises from JMPD for years but nothing has changed. We’re requesting JMPD to be visible in those spots so people can feel safe,” he said.
Cllr Sun said the forum would be taken to all regions for inputs from councillors to see how the Joburg 10 Plus Plan could be fine-tuned.
“We’ve seen that the existing one is clearly not working. We’re picking up a lot of information. The one thing that often comes up is JMPD visibility, which is needed in many parts of the city. Hopefully, the extra 1 500 JMPD officers to be recruited soon will boost visibility on the ground,” Cllr Sun said.
