October 28, 2005
By Lucky Sindane
THE City's Safety Strategy - aimed at tackling crime and grime and boosting investor confidence - has entered a new phase, with Johannesburg's utilities, agencies and corporatised entities signing a memorandum of understanding.
The UACs, together with the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), signed the document at the metro police headquarters on
Friday, 28 October.
The strategy, approved by the council in August 2004, pulls together the diverse arms of the municipality to work together on different projects. It sees the JMPD working with the councillors involved with safety and security, and with Joburg's UACs.
However, the memorandum of understanding has now made these relationships more formal.
"We've always been working together," said JMPD chief Chris Ngcobo, pointing to how the metro police and Pikitup, the City's waste management company, had worked together during the recent municipal workers strike.
"We need to keep on working together to improve our city," he added.
The strategy ensures that any problems are analysed thoroughly and then a range of possible solutions are discussed before the appropriate action is taken. This is done by the City Safety Strategy Joint Operations Committee, which meets every six weeks to plan and review operations.
The JMPD, which leads the implementation of the strategy, regularly conducts joint operations with the South African Police Service and the UACs.
"We have been working closely with the JMPD since the implementation of Operation Gcin'amanzi [a City project to upgrade the water infrastructure in Soweto} to ensure that water by-laws are enforced," said Johannesburg Water's services delivery department divisional manager, Lesego Lebuso.
"Positive feedback has been received from the community, who are now seeing visible JMPD officers where we are carrying out work," she added.
The signatories to the memorandum were: Ngcobo, for the metro police; Pikitup's managing director, Siva Pillay; Johannesburg Water's managing director, Gerald Dumas as well as Lebuso; City Parks managing director, Luther Williamson; the Johannesburg Roads Agency's (JRA) managing director, Mavela Dlamini; and City Power's senior manager, risk control, Chris Solomon.
"We need to take safety as a priority concern," said JRA's Dlamini. "The memorandum of understanding shouldn't be just signed, it should be implemented."
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