eThekwini Municipality's Safer Cities Unit has established Ward Safety Committees, an initiative aiming at training and developing people on safety and curbing crime in their communities. The aim of Ward Safety Committees is to initiate community safety projects.

The purpose of this training is to orientate local citizens on crime prevention strategies, mandates and tools that could be utilised in developing safety plans for each ward.

People participating in the programme were chosen through consultations with communities at all 100 wards.

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

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 within communities.  In fulfilling these mandates, the Municipality is proud to launch the process of establishing its Ward Safety Committees.

The Head for Safer Cities, 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 exercise.

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".

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.

"People who want to be part of this initiative should consult a local Councillor or Safer Cities Department", adds Xaba.

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