Mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, says that he will\u00a0lobby national government to grant South Africa’s major metropolitans the power to prosecute and have their own prisons.<\/p>\n
Mashaba revealed this during a presentation of the City of Johannesburg\u2019s monthly crime statistics on Monday (29 October)\u201a reports TimesLive<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n “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\u201a have our own prisons and do our own investigations,” he said.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Mashaba added that the city would continue to\u00a0publish monthly crime statistics by the JMPD, which was done to put the national criminal justice system under pressure to do its job.<\/p>\n \u201cMunicipalities have no power to prosecute. That is why we need the (South African Police Service) and NPA to work with us as the city.\u201d<\/p>\n Johannesburg Central is only behind Cape Town CBD when it comes to the worst\u00a0areas for crime<\/a><\/strong> in South Africa.<\/p>\n According to the\u00a0\u00a0South African Police Service’s crime statistics, there were\u00a012,221 reported crimes in the area over the 2017\/18 period.<\/p>\n
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