The Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services has created a huge security threat in Gauteng by announcing that Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s so-called Gauteng Crime Prevention Wardens (GCPW’s) will be declared peace officers.
According to Ian Cameron, Director of Community Safety at Action Society, the Ministry had to consider the unlawful establishment of the unit; scrutinise the screening process of officers, the lack of training the so-called officers received; and investigate various reports of illegal activity and violence by the members, but instead of doing the obvious right thing – to declare the unit unlawful, it announced its intent to “legalise” the unit by declaring GCPW’s peace officers, giving them formal legal powers under the Criminal Procedure Act.
“The reality is that up to 6000 of these so-called crime wardens can now potentially be armed without any confirmation that they completed any form of training as there is no record of who attended the unit’s so-called training in the first place. It is unclear if the training included proper firearms competency training and it is very unlikely that any of the candidates were screened for previous criminal offences. This poses a very serious security threat in Gauteng. We call on the Ministry to reconsider before a new Government Gazette is published in this regard. If they go through with this step, they will open the door for a new wave of unsupervised armed bullying and corruption, seriously undermining public respect for the law.”
