EDITORIAL | Crime-fighting wardens hit the streets, but can we keep their guns out of thugs’ hands?

Gauteng is increasingly plagued by violent, often deadly, crimes perpetrated with guns — many of them illegal and replica firearms.

Provincial police commissioner Gen Elias Mawela on Saturday noted this disturbing trend during a weekly briefing on Operation O Kae Molao.

A day later premier Panyaza Lesufi introduced scores of uniformed “crime-prevention wardens” at the Giant Stadium in Soshanguve who will be a “force multiplier” in collaboration with SAPS and traffic police as they patrol communities and townships.

The freshly graduated cohort held their passing out parade on Sunday after completing “intensive training” — over three months — and hit the ground running in various crime hotspots on Monday.

Gauteng traffic police spokesperson Sello Maremane said the wardens were appointed, in terms of section 334 of the Criminal Procedure Act, as peace officers with powers to make arrests, make statements in court — and carry firearms.

Standard police training is a 24-month contract split into 12 months at the police academy and 12 months in the workplace.

While more boots on the ground are welcome in the fight against crime, this new crime-fighting strategy will ultimately — as more wardens complete their firearms training and the weapons are procured — expose communities to even more guns in circulation.

It was just last month that police confirmed guns were the most common murder weapon in the province — 1,721 people were murdered in three months, according to the October-December 2022 crime statistics.

Maremane assured us many of the wardens were officially trained to use guns, but those yet to be trained would be accompanied by police or law enforcement officers.

The plan, he said, is to “fight fire with fire” and send more wardens for firearm training. “We cannot send these people out there without firearms, it is hot out there ... these people will be trained on how to handle a firearm,” he said.

But as experienced as a law enforcement officer can be, it was evident last weekend that even trained police officers have their service firearms stolen.

Off-duty officer Const Kgothatso Digoro was recently shot and killed at home in Soshanguve. His service pistol was stolen, and the suspects are still at large.

On the same day, another police officer was shot multiple times by unknown men in Montana. The captain’s service pistol was taken, and he was flown to a hospital in Johannesburg.

Their stolen firearms are now presumably in the hands of criminals.

Lesufi's mass launch of the new crime-fighting wardens comes after his announcement on finding better ways to track stolen guns. In his February state of the province address, he said all law enforcement firearm data would be registered on a system used to trace firearms. Those who have lost guns were also encouraged to register.

In the same month, police destroyed 65,519 firearms that were seized or voluntarily surrendered during the firearm amnesty period.

SAPS emphasised this was intended to remove guns and ammunition that posed a threat to public safety from circulation.

While the wardens are a welcome initiative to help curb crime, with just three months of training, it is concerning to note they too could be targeted by thugs wanting to get their hands on firearms.

Let's hope this crime-fighting initiative does not backfire and end up amplifying the scourge of gun violence in the province.