Protect our councillors
IT indeed makes the rest of us shudder in fear and in shock to hear about the brutal killing of councillors across the country. I don’t want to speculate but it seems that the killings are internally orchestrated (by political parties) for various reasons.
In terms of risk assessment for employees in various categories in the municipality, it’s clear that councillors are more exposed to danger than any other employees. Why are councillors not equipped so they can protect themselves? Municipalities must invest more in its councillors because without councillors there is no municipal council, thus services will not be delivered to the people as stipulated in the municipal IDP.
The killing of councillors demonstrates that municipalities are failing to protect their councillors, as this becomes a norm in South Africa.
Yes, there are training and development programmes offered by municipalities for employees to attend, mostly related to work and governance but these are not enough, being a councillor is a life-threatening job.
It is incumbent upon municipalities to make sure that all councillors attend self-defence programmes. In metros councillors can also use metro police facilities to acquire firearm competency and be provided with firearms to protect themselves, instead of waiting for a councillor to be threatened before the municipality can allocate security to that councillor.
Security guards cannot be provided to every councillor as that would be unnecessary expenditure, but training councillors in self-defence would be beneficial.
Surveillance at councillors’ homes should be installed by the council, and if not, subsidised by 80% so that surveillance cameras can be installed. Municipal halls must have surveillance too.
With councillors’ consent, their cars can also be fitted with anti-hijacking kits and devices that would help to find perpetrators of crime in terms of drive-by shootings. My point is that councillor protection should be on top of the agenda. We cannot allocate a single police officer to police a single councillor every day.
In a municipal council, councillors approve laws about dogs, horses and nuisance, it’s time that they approve a law that protects them. Councillor protection must be budgeted for.
SANDILE BONTSA Nyanga