Durban — After the spate of mass killings in and around Durban, the eThekwini Municipality has announced that it will deploy metro police officers to townships to assist community policing forums (CPFs) and the SAPS in fighting crime.
eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said they were looking into the deployment once new recruits had been trained and metro police numbers increased. Kaunda did not give a time frame when he mentioned the deployment during a portfolio committee reshuffle meeting.
The metro police was established for traffic control and to enforce city by-laws and were concentrated in the CBD. Kaunda commended areas such as uMlazi that had revived CPFs to help police fight crime.
The mayor said that when he took over as political head of the City in 2019, the revival of CPFs was his first call and he was happy that areas such as uMlazi, which now had active community safety structures, heeded his call.
Kaunda said increasing metro police’s annual intake from 200 to 400 was part of the city’s crime-fighting strategy to spread officers in the townships. Kaunda said the eThekwini metro police should have 5 000 members, but it currently had 2 000.
In a reconfigured portfolio committees, the City created a security and emergency committee as a standalone portfolio to accommodate National Freedom Party (NFP) councillor Zandile Myeni, who was appointed the new deputy mayor. Also benefiting in the new arrangement was the EFF which would head the key human settlements and infrastructure committee.
The committee, where more than 60% of the city’s budget is allocated, would be headed by the EFF’s Thabane Miya. This appointment came as a surprise to many since in the Exco meeting, it was mooted that ANC councillor Thembo Ntuli would get the position because he had been acting in the role after the ousting of the ABC’s councillor, Philani Mavundla.
Instead, Ntuli, who is also deputy chairperson and acting chairperson because of Zandile Gumede’s absence because of the step-aside policy, was appointed to head the economic development, planning and trading services committee.
The ethics committee, which was under ANC councillor Ntokozo Sibiya, was given to DA councillor Tino Pillay.
Clarifying the announcement by the ANC, DA caucus leader Thabani Mthethwa and Pillay said he was not appointed as the chair of the ethics committee but was deployed by the party to serve on it.
Mthethwa said the party had submitted Pillay's name to the speaker, therefore the party did not understand how Pillay's name ended up in the ANC’s hands.
Welcoming the appointment of his party councillor as the head of human settlement and Infrastructure, EFF caucus leader Themba Mvubu said his party accepted the challenge that came with the position and said Miya would work hard to deliver services to the people.
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