Joburg wants its own courts and jail
Mayor Mashaba’s bid to fast-track crime fighting efforts in SA’s richest city depends on buy-in by ANC MPs
Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba is pushing, behind the scenes, for the city to have its own courts, prosecutors and even jails.
This is Mashaba’s latest attempt to rid the city of crime.
The mayor told a gathering at Princess clinic in Roodepoort two weeks ago that he was already lobbying members of parliament in an attempt to ensure that his plan was realised.
Mashaba believes a decentralised justice system will be more effective in decreasing crime in the city.
The appointment and remuneration of magistrates and prosecutors falls under the jurisdiction of the national department of justice, in terms of the current laws.
His spokesman Luyanda Mfeka said the aim of this would be to “advocate for large metros and local policing units such as the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) to have strengthened policing powers” to fight crime and create safer communities.
“This also includes increasing the powers of entities such as municipal courts which are capacitated with prosecutors,” Mfeka said.
Mashaba’s plan, however, has been met with criticism from the ANC, accusing him of attempting to create “a state of Johannesburg within the state of South Africa”.
ANC Joburg spokesperson Jolidee Matongo said the proposal showed that Mashaba did not want to work with the provincial and national government because “they are not DA-led.”
“He would rather have his own state in Joburg as he’s trying to create a state within a state,” Matongo said. He said Mashaba’s idea “wasn’t well thought-out” and displayed “arrogance” and lack of understanding that there needed to be cooperation between all spheres of government.
Mfeka told Sowetan that Mashaba sought only to have discussions with members of parliament, “as part of the ordinary law making process, to lobby for changes in legislation governing the policing powers of municipalities”.
“The power to make such changes ultimately rests in the national legislative sphere of government, which is why the mayor has identified the said sector for beginning these discussions,” Mfeka said.
Matongo accused Mashaba of raising this proposal publicly before putting it to council.
The ANC in Johannesburg said the idea would not fly as the city did not have the resources to fund the added operations and that the JMPD would encroach on the role of the SAPS.
Head of the Crime and Justice Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, Gareth Newham, said, given the substantial increases in murder and armed robberies, it made sense that Mashaba would want additional resources to tackle crime.
“While there may be merits to decentralised capacity to tackle crime he is unlikely to find support from ANC members of parliament,” Newham said.