The Safer Cities Unit of the Municipality launched Ward Safety Committees at City Hall on 3 June. This is an initiative aimed at training and developing people on safety, curbing crime in their communities, and initiating community safety projects.

The Unit has have already trained, orientated local citizens on crime prevention strategies, mandates and tools that could be utilised in developing safety plans for each ward in all 100 wards.

The functions of the Ward Safety Committees are to establish street safety committees and undertake a situational analysis in their wards. They will also develop safety initiatives and projects in line with the Safer Cities Strategy, as well as co-ordinate crime prevention initiatives through a multi-agency approach and broad based community safety at local level.

Dr Michael Sutcliffe, Municipal Manager said, "Volunteers will be the eyes and ears of the community to help identify roots of crime. It is important to talk about criminals and hopefully volunteers will help the City to be the safest in the world"

The National Crime Prevention Strategy clearly spells out the role of Local Government as taking a lead role in building safer communities, as it is a level closest to the people. The White Paper on Safety and Security also encourages local government to form partnerships with communities.  "In fulfilling these mandates, the Municipality is proud to launch the process of establishing Ward Safety Committees," said  the City Manager.

The Head of Safer Cities Unit, Martin Xaba, said, "This is an interactive way of promoting community safety at ward level. The safety structures will implement specific community safety projects to deal with social crime prevention, effective policing, community mobilisation and crime prevention through environmental design projects. This initiative will address issues raised by locals through area profiling exercises.

It should be clarified that the Ward Safety Representatives are not competing with already existing and mandated structures like Community Policing Forum (CPF). Instead, these structures will create a platform for ward safety integration.

 "Community members should liaise closely with their local councillors, ward safety representatives as well as their Safer Cities Facilitator in developing a safety plan for their wards," said Xaba. He went on to say that the Ward Safety Committees concept is a bottom up approach.  Facilitators have been deployed within the South, North, Inner West, Outer West and Central region areas to develop ward safety committees.

Nomvuzo Shabalala, Chairman of the Health Safety and Social Services Cluster said, "Business Against Crime needs to partner with Safer Cities to curb crime and ensure that our environment is conducive to live in".


  People who want to be part of this initiative should consult a local
  Councillor or Safer Cities Department on 031 311 4455.

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