Gauteng says the game’s up for criminals, or is it?

GREAT change comes with one’s admission of weaknesses. Recently, new Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi admitted that criminals “do as they please” in his province.

This, unfortunately, is the harsh truth and lived reality for residents not only of Gauteng, but all the other eight provinces.

Opening his state of the province address, Panyaza said, if “I had a choice I would not deliver this state of the province address”. He would instead take everyone to see what he and his government are doing on the ground, Lesufi said.

He quoted a journalist who wrote, in response to the recent shocking crime stats, that the ordinary citizens of this country survive “by the grace of God” and the “sheer luck” of not crossing paths with criminals.

In response, the province will take the crime crisis as a priority and “unleash all of our resources” to tackle it.

In real, practical terms this means increasing the crime-fighting spending from the current R750 million to “multi-billions” in the next three years.

The province will also “arm citizens” with hi-tech “e-buttons” linked to CCTV cameras and a command centre. The idea being that everyone can press those e-buttons and thereby “unleash all forms of support”.

The provincial government will also procure drones and has employed 6 000 young people to train to patrol “all our streets in Gauteng” from May this year.

The message to the criminals is “no more playing games in Gauteng”.

Unfortunately, very few self-respecting citizens will believe all these promises, and the resources ploughed in by South Africa’s richest province are far short of the requirements.

Citizens will believe it when they see it. Is this the beginning of our war against crime?

Will the criminals, going forward be afraid of playing games in Gauteng and all across the country as they are doing?

We will watch this space, and see if the others will boost our hopes.