The City of Johannesburg’s Department of Public Safety, led by Dr Mgcini Tshwaku, is expected to launch a new tactical reaction unit within the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) on Friday to address the ongoing high level of crimes and emerging crimes in the municipality.
The unit will focus on gang and drug-related crimes, kidnappings, cash-in-transit heists, and illegal mining, among other crimes committed in the metro.
The programme #FightingCrimeManjeNamhlanje will be launched at Moletsane sports ground in Soweto at 10am.
This follows a sequence of unbearable incidents where the lives of people were in danger; some of them died, and others were hospitalised.
Recently, children in Gauteng died from consuming foods that were believed to be poisonous. On October 31, South Africans woke up to the shocking and devastating news that a fire ripped through the Usindiso Ministries for Women and Children, a five-storey building in the Joburg CBD, killing, at last count, 74 people.
In August, illegal miners called the "zama zamas" exchanged gunshots with the police at Riverlea after the police attempted to close the mine dumps in the area. The community lived in fear, saying their lives were at risk.
Tshwaku said the programme has been inspired by the EFF manifesto, which "does not promise, but commits".
"It has been decided that we have to strengthen the law enforcement agencies to be able to combat crime fire by fire, fight drug-related crimes, and also combat all the drug-related issues," he said.
Additionally, the MMC said they would unveil the new strategy to patrol the Freeway (M1 and N1), where off-ramps and on-ramps will be highly patrolled.
Tshwaku's intention is to sweep crime off the streets of the City of Joburg.
IOL Politics