“Building safer communities is our top priority” MEC Mazibuko- 24 February 2022

Office of the Premier 2022/02/23 - 22:00



Qaqambile Mdledle

All Gauteng Provincial Government efforts are aimed at ensuring that communities are safe and free from the fear of crime and criminality.

Replying to the debate on the Premier's State of the Province Address at the legislature, Community Safety MEC, Faith Mazibuko said the current statistics reflect a decrease in crime categories such as contact crime, sexual offences which are made up of rape, sexual assault, attempted sexual offences and contact, property related crimes.

"Building safer communities is our top priority. Our focus has always been the trio priority crimes of violence against women and children, murder and house robberies.

"We have procured and branded 45 high powered vehicles and 3 mobile police stations have been assembled and are currently being branded. In addition, we have trained 221 Community Policy Forum (CPF) members, patrollers included, and 10 of these patrollers have been deployed per ward level," said MEC Mazibuko.

MEC said the department will host Security Indaba in March to come up with a strategy that will include all sectors of society in fighting crime in the province.

"The Indaba is part of our efforts of bringing South African Police Services, Metro Police Departments, Gauteng Traffic Police, Security Companies, Business against Crime and CPFs under one room to come up with tangible actions to fight crime in our communities," she said.

As part of fighting Gender Based Violence, MEC said the department has deployed GBV brigades in all wards and 30 dedicated GBVF social workers were appointed.

"The brigades play a critical role in enhancing community awareness on the Green Doors, Ikhaya-le-Themba, and the Victim's Empowerment Centres (VECs) at police stations, shelters, to support survivors of GBV," MEC said.

Government has increased the number of Green Doors to 36 across the wards in the province. Since 2019, a total of 1,151 GBV and crime victims have accessed and received support in our shelters.

"We launched the Floor Management Programme within police stations to limit secondary victimisation and waiting times for those reporting GBVF crimes.

As a result of our efforts, we have reached a total of 437 895 beneficiaries through a programme of no violence against women and children, including 16 days of activism," MEC concluded.

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