Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi will give an update on the next phase for the crime prevention wardens, commonly known as Amapanyaza, nearly two weeks after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said their formation was illegal.
The premier said he will update the public on Wednesday on the efforts to consolidate the capacity of the province’s traffic wardens and to reinforce their contribution to community safety.
Elijah Mhlanga, spokesperson for the Gauteng government, said: “Tackling crime remains a top priority for the Gauteng provincial government, firmly positioned as one of the G13 [known as Gauteng 13 challenges] key priorities, and the recent decrease in crime figures is an encouraging trend that the province is committed to sustaining and accelerating.
The strategic deployment and enhanced capacity of the traffic wardens are integral to this ongoing effort— Elijah Mhlanga, Gauteng government spokesperson
Thousands of men and women were hired through Lesufi’s Nasi Ispani mass recruitment programme in 2023 to fight crime in the province.
During his testimony before parliament’s ad-hoc committee, Mkhwanazi said he had previously raised the illegality of the unit during one of the meetings of the police board of commissioners.
Mkhwanazi said that while Lesufi had good intentions, Amapanyaza should not, by law, exist.
“I raised that in the [police] BOC [board of commissioners] and I said this is illegal. It is against the law; the premier must be advised. He’s got good intentions, but it cannot be done,” he said at the time.
“The law doesn’t allow it. The very same senior managers in the police said, ‘No just leave the premier alone. We like his proposal.’”
However, the provincial government insisted the wardens were a legal entity and rejected the assertion that their formation showed contempt for the rule of law.
