THE EFF in Gauteng has blasted Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi following the launch of the 6 000 CCTV cameras initiative to fight crime in the province.
Lesufi launched the initiative on Thursday, 15 February, as the Gauteng Provincial Government has taken significant strides in enhancing security measures across the province by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Vumacam.
The agreement is to combat crime in townships, informal settlements, business districts and suburbs by ensuring that nearly 6 000 new CCTV cameras are strategically positioned to monitor 30 crime hotspots throughout Gauteng.
While Lesufi praised the work done, the EFF provincial chairman Nkululeki Dunga slammed the premier for taking credit for the city's work.
According to Dunga, the initiative falls under the City of Joburg Metro Municipality's Department of Public Safety and that Panayza had intentions to 'overshadow' the work that had been done by the department under the stewardship of MMC Commissar Dr Mgcini Tshwaku.
"On numerous occasions, Panyaza has masqueraded and pretended to be busy in the presence of cameras and the media and is nowhere to be found when the unfavourable efforts of implementing programmes in the City of Joburg are the order of the day.
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"This ranges from refusing to supplement budgets to benefitting the people of Joburg in amplifying safety efforts in the streets to sabotaging efforts aimed at crime prevention," Dunga said.
At the same time, Dunga called out Lesufi for having dispatched his 'crime wardens', also known as amapanyaza, to operate surveillance systems without agreement.
"These actions not only undermine the city as a whole but concurrently jeopardise the security of the operations of public service," he said.
Despite the rave, Lesufi remains steady in his fight against crime.
He said he has plans to bolster the ranks of Crime Prevention Wardens (CPWs), augmenting the existing 6 000 personnel and revealing the formation of a tactical team.
"We're adding a tactical team. We'll have a tactical team that will concentrate on taxi violence, kidnapping, land invasion and fight against the hijacking of government construction projects in the province," he said.
