Striving for a better South Africa that has free gender-based violence directed at women, children, and LGBTQIA+ persons through transformation approaches that take account of inequality and the gender differences that drive GVBF, South African Cities Network (SACN) launched the 4th State of Urban Safety in South Africa report on Thursday, 09 June 2022 at Kempton Park Civic Centre.
State of Urban Safety Reports are products of the USRG, which was established in 2014 to address the shortage in opportunities for structured engagement and exchange among city practitioners, together with relevant national government role players, on urban safety and violence prevention.
As the first institutionalized platform n South Africa for enabling practice-based learning on the topic, the USRG is premised on the unique position of local government to play a leading role in driving integrated, preventive approaches to violence and crime that extend beyond traditional policing and law enforcement or the reliance on private security firms.
The objectives of the Urban Safety Reference Group intend to serve as a platform for peer-peer learning and knowledge sharing amongst practitioners on urban safety.
It also provides a space for regular interaction and networking between city practitioners and national departments directly relevant to the governance of urban safety.
Researcher of SACN, Siphelele Ngobese presented the findings of the projects that helped in contributing to making the city space, economy, and society safer and more inclusive, particularly for vulnerable groups.
“Factors driving crime include declining socioeconomic conditions and greater inequality; increased political corruption that results in lower police and criminal justice performance, leading to declining public trust in the government,” said Ngobese.
She further mentioned that murder is the most reliable crime statistic and best proxy for violence. Reducing the factors contributing to murder will reduce the violence generally.
“Most murders take place in a relatively few locations e.g., for 2020/21 50% of murders occurred in only 11.5% of police precincts. Robbery causes the most fear and is closely linked to much organised crime. Most incidents are committed by a relatively small number of repeated perpetrators”.
MMC for Public Safety, David Tembe said that what was discussed today relates to what they are doing in the City of Johannesburg, safer city is priority number two on their seven prerenal priorities so therefore during the launch he learned a lot and he also contributed a lot in terms of making the city safe.
“In Johannesburg, we’ve got hijacked and abandoned buildings and we’ve got crime in the inner city and not only in the inner city but even in the outcasts. Our fatalities on our road to illegal dumping and all those other issues, it is because of lack of cohesion with working with other departments,”
“In making sure that we are in a safe city we need to be constant, meaning we have to put a cop on the red dot, meaning putting the cops where a need arises because if you just deploy, the deployment strategy must be directed by the data that you have got,” concluded Cllr Tembe.
Ekurhuleni Police Commissioner, IJ Mapiyeye mentioned that we’ve got a challenge in crime, crime knows no colour and this is not an Ekurhuleni problem but it’s a worldwide problem.
By Simphiwe Nkosi
