Johannesburg wants the power to prosecute and imprison criminals directly

Mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, says that he will lobby national government to grant South Africa’s major metropolitans the power to prosecute and have their own prisons.

Mashaba revealed this during a presentation of the City of Johannesburg’s monthly crime statistics on Monday (29 October)‚ reports TimesLive.

“I hope in the 2019 elections that the new government can listen to big cities and municipalities like us so that we can be given the powers to prosecute‚ have our own prisons and do our own investigations,” he said.

“Right now, unfortunately, our poor colleagues in JMPD can only arrest and give (the suspects) to the Hawks and the NPA and that is where it ends.”

Mashaba added that the city would continue to publish monthly crime statistics by the JMPD, which was done to put the national criminal justice system under pressure to do its job.

“Municipalities have no power to prosecute. That is why we need the (South African Police Service) and NPA to work with us as the city.”

Johannesburg Central is only behind Cape Town CBD when it comes to the worst areas for crime in South Africa.

According to the  South African Police Service’s crime statistics, there were 12,221 reported crimes in the area over the 2017/18 period.

Read: These are the 30 worst areas for crime in South Africa