The Metro Police canine unit

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Joint initiative aims to make parks safer City Parks has teamed up with the South African police and the Metro Police in a bid to drive crime from Joburg's 2 000 parks. November 3, 2006 By Lucky Sindane JOHANNESBURG City Parks has joined hands with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department to make the city's 2 000 parks safer. This initiative is part of the Johannesburg City Safety Strategy, which aims to make Joburg attractive to investors and safer for residents and tourists. "The safety programme brings together various agencies in operations to combat crime," said Nazira Cachalia, the programme's manager. "We had to sit down and think about how we focus on our open spaces." City Parks's managing director, Luther Williamson, explained some of the thinking behind the initiative. "A number of our parks will be used as fan parks during the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, therefore it's our responsibility to maintain safety in all our parks. "People go to parks to relax because they don't have gardens - most of them stay in flats - and when they get there they become victims of crime. But that's about to change." City Parks has appointed 34 park wardens who monitor all the parks on a daily basis. They work closely with the SAPS and Metro Police, who are responsible for enforcing laws and by-laws. "Our park wardens do a tremendous job of keeping our parks safe," Williamson said. Some of the problems identified at parks include alcohol abuse, which led to fighting; crime; loud music from motor vehicles; and homeless people living in the parks. Commenting on the issue, the SAPS's Johannesburg assistant commissioner, Oswald Reddy, said: "We need to claim back all our parks. Jointly we managed to turn around Joubert Park. There was no freedom in that park but now things have changed. "What is very important is for us to sustain this initiative, otherwise we'll have missing fences and broken windows in our parks." Metro Police superintendent Dean McCabe said: "Our aim is to bring down the rate of crime in our parks. There used to be a problem at Florida with people fighting, but that has changed. "We as [Metro Police] commit ourselves to having more visible officers on patrol in all the open spaces," he concluded. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za