EDITORIAL | Lesufi’s amaPanyaza initiative has been a costly lesson

On Wednesday, Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi announced that the crime-prevention wardens (CPWs), commonly known as amaPanyaza, will cease to exist in their current form.

He said they will be repurposed to be part of the Gauteng Traffic Police and will be subject to extensive and intensive training for the next 18 to 36 months.

Lesufi said the province was doing this to eliminate areas of deep concern, including their training mandate and their qualification.

“As the Gauteng government, we want to focus on tackling crime rather than spending time squabbling around mandate and legitimacy or getting caught within factional battles of law enforcement agencies,” Lesufi said.

In his briefing, Lesufi didn’t mention that a public protector report, released on Wednesday, found that the establishment, appointment and deployment of the CPWs to participate in operations with police or other law enforcement agencies — without supporting legal authority empowering them to conduct crime prevention duties — was irregular.

In her remedial action, which is binding, the public protector said Lesufi must ensure that within 180 days of the report, the wardens be retrained as traffic wardens in compliance with the National Road Traffic Act.

This means that Lesufi’s decision to disband the amaPanyaza was because of the report and the remedial action by the public protector.

The report was the result of a complaint by Adv Paul Hoffman, director of Accountability Now, in September 2023, in which he alleged there was maladministration in the establishment and deployment of the CPWs.

The report noted that the law, as it stands, neither empowers nor confers provincial government any authority to exercise policing powers. The report said the provincial government, in respect of policing, was limited to oversight and monitoring.

“Any conduct that seeks to assume any power or function not granted by law or to perform functions or power falling exclusively in another sphere of government shall be unlawful and unconstitutional,” the report noted.

The report noted that any search or arrest conducted by a CPW will be unlawful, without legal authority and the evidence unconstitutionally obtained may be excluded during a trial.

Though the intention by Lesufi to assist in fighting crime was supposedly a noble cause, the manner in which his functionaries in the Gauteng department of community safety went about it fell foul of the law.

The amaPanyaza were meant to support the police service and improve visible policing. However, there was no clarity on the unit’s mandate and powers and there was confusion about what the wardens may or may not do legally. There was also a concern that the wardens, who underwent a three-month course, were not well trained to handle their tasks.

The establishment of the unit meant hundreds of millions of rand were likely taken from other departments with pressing needs. All parties agreed there was no legal authority supporting the lawful establishment of CPWs in their current form. In a country where resources should be used responsibly, such expenditure should be frowned upon.

This disbandment has been welcomed by political parties, with the DA saying it had previously cautioned that the amaPanyaza initiative was ill-conceived, poorly implemented and unsustainable.

“We warned that the recruits were not adequately trained, insufficiently resourced and did not meet the legal criteria to serve as peace officers. Premier Lesufi stubbornly chose to ignore these warnings, pressing ahead with a costly programme that has now collapsed under its own weight,” DA MPL Solly Msimanga said.

He alleged the programme never had a budget when Lesufi made the announcement about the establishment of the CPWs in 2022. Msimanga alleged the premier took money that was supposed to have gone to NGOs funded by the social development department and money that was supposed to go to the health department.

The Freedom Front Plus said the project was illegal, impractical and it was dangerous to appoint individuals lacking the proper training or mandate as law enforcers, even though the intention might be good. The party said the programme has not curbed crime, but cost taxpayers millions of rand and undermined the separation of powers between provincial and national security services.

The remedial action by the public protector, that they be moved to traffic policing, provides a viable option for the thousands of these candidates to get proper training to make a meaningful contribution in areas defined by the law that need them.

Sight should not be lost that whatever authorities do, they should ensure their actions are lawful, as has been shown with this costly and unlawful exercise.