Gauteng turns to drones and panic buttons in fight against crime
The Gauteng Treasury says that it will be allocating millions of rands to fighting crime in the province.
Presenting the province’s medium-term budget policy statement on Thursday (24 November), MEC for finance in the province, Jacob Mamabolo, said that the treasury has allocated R173 million for this goal in the latest financial year.
He said that the funding would be used in the battle against crime, corruption, vandalism and lawlessness in the province.
“We are very confident that this money will be well spent in the fight against crime,” he said.
Specifically, he said that the money would be used for:
- The recruitment of peace wardens for the province;
- The procurement of 10 drones;
- The procurement of 50 vehicles; and
- The procurement of 500,000 panic buttons.
“We must say to the criminals…their days are numbered. The drones will be moving around, the panic buttons will be checking them, we are going to give the criminals a run in this province, and we’re putting our money where our mouth is,” he said.
The use of drones to aid police in the country has caught on in a significant way, with the South African Police Service announcing in June that it was also looking to procure the technology to assist in fighting crime.
Police minister Bheki Cele said at the time that a total of 166 drones would be purchased in three phases, with the technology set to be introduced across its operations.
The drones are specifically being procured for use in:
- Provincial Operational Command Centres;
- District Operational Command Centres;
- The Safer City Projects;
- Satellite drone units serving various police stations;
- The utilisation of drones in rural safety plans.
As crime has escalated over the years – and continues to escalate – private security companies in South Africa have already used drones for anti-crime initiatives for several years, particularly in up-market complexes and estates where it can be difficult to track criminals on the ground.
Crime wave
The latest crime statistics presented by Cele on Wednesday (23 November) show that police are not seeing much success in stemming the rising tide of crime in South Africa – particularly violent crime.
South Africa’s latest crime stats – a massive wave of red as violence escalates
Levels of crime in Gauteng – being the most populous province in the country – are usually far higher than the rest of the country in terms of sheer numbers, but in proportion to the population, falls somewhere in the middle.
The portfolio committee on police responded to the figures with alarm, however, noting that it is concerned that levels of violent crime in South Africa have increased so rapidly.
The increase of 11% in sexual offences, 13% in murder and 34% in attempted sexual offences is worrying and points to a failure to deal with these categories of crime.
“The statistics received by the committee continue to paint a grim picture for the fight against crime in the country,” it said.
“The committee’s argument is that a collaboration between the police and the community is the only basis on which the fight can be won. Also, the enhancement of both the detectives and crime intelligence environments will add the necessary energy and expertise in the fight against crime,” said committee chair, Tina Joemat-Pettersson.
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