Army training for controversial Gauteng Crime Prevention Wardens raises concerns

15 Feb 2024

The Gauteng Crime Prevention Wardens are now training under the supervision of the South African National Defence Force, a decision that has sparked concerns from an expert on justice and violence prevention.

The Gauteng government has partnered with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in training the Gauteng Crime Prevention Wardens (CPWs) to bolster their capacity to fight crime.

This is according to Sizwe Pamla, spokesperson for Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi.

The partnership with the SANDF will see wardens being admitted at various army camps for non-military training by SANDF officers and other qualified individuals.

The wardens are also trained by metro police departments in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, as well as by the Road Traffic Management Corporation, Pamla said.

“There are currently 7,436 wardens that have been recruited across the province. The wardens work on a rotational basis to provide 24-hour police visibility in communities and receive a stipend as they are still undergoing training,” he said.

On Sunday, 4 February, more than 2,600 people recruited through the third targeted recruitment drive departed for training at SANDF camps in Kimberley, Potchefstroom and Springs.

“The cohort recruitment drive is in line with the Employment Equity Act and is aimed at realising the inclusion of all population groups, including coloured and Indian people,” said Pamla.

“The Wardens’ training will include, amongst others, [a] peace officer course, traffic warden course, firearm training, physical training, first aid training, search and rescue, and crowd control.”

Pamla said the training of wardens was continuous, “Their on-the-job training is executed under the command and control of the SA Police Service together with other law enforcement agencies in the province.”

Still no policing powers

In December 2023, the wardens, colloquially known as amaPanyaza, were granted full police powers by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, despite irregularities and complaints.

A statement issued by the Department of Justice said Lamola agreed to confer powers on the CPWs in terms of section 334 of the Criminal Procedure Act and that they “must assume the same legal status as Gauteng provincial traffic officers”.

Justice ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri previously said that Lamola had the authority to confer peace officer status on any person to exercise power under the Criminal Procedure Act.

He said the crime wardens’ powers would be limited “to the powers conferred upon such functionaries [traffic officers] and, in principle, relate to the policing of traffic matters”.

“The policing of traffic matters falls within the power of a provincial government and this will allow the provincial government to retain control over the persons,” Phiri said.

However, for any category of persons to be designated as peace officers and allocated powers, a notice has to be published in the Government Gazette, delineating the category of person, the area in which they operate, the offences against which they act, and their powers in respect of acting against the offences.

This notice has not yet been published.

Read more in Daily Maverick: SA’s deployment of new Crime Prevention Wardens may be against Constitution and even illegal

For any person to exercise these powers as a peace officer, they need a certificate of appointment signed by the national police commissioner, who must be satisfied as to the person’s lack of previous convictions, that they have not been declared unfit to possess a firearm and that they have undergone relevant training. This process can typically take months and has also not happened.

Neither the Gauteng Department of Community Safety, which oversees the CPWs, nor Pamla responded to queries about this issue.

Concerns over SANDF training

Gareth Newham, the head of justice and violence prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, said the key issue was establishing the CPWs’ role.

“I think this has raised a lot of confusion because the way it’s been presented by the premier is that you want them to be armed, you want them to make arrests, you basically want them to do the work of fully trained police officers,” he said.

“If you want fully trained police officers, then you invest in the SAPS and ensure that people receive proper training and understand their roles.”

However, because of significant dysfunction within SAPS, civilians often do not know what police officers are doing, and those involved in corruption and brutality are not being held accountable, said Newham.

Another option, he said, was to deploy people in crime hotspots.

“Not to do policing work, but to act as the eyes and ears of the police, so they’re connected to the police radios or WhatsApp groups and they’re deployed at specific times to be the eyes and ears so that through surveillance they can provide a preventative capacity,” he said.

Newham said people walking home from taxi ranks or bus stations late in the evenings or early morning are frequently targets for criminals, and that having wardens there could make walkways safer.

“That’s the crime prevention approach… we don’t need specialised training for that and we can then have a large number of people that have a stipend for this,” he said.

“What you don’t want to do is get people who haven’t been carefully vetted, so that you don’t know their capabilities, their characteristics, their risk profiles, their integrity and so forth, and then arm them and have quasi-state militia running around… there is no real evidence that this has reduced crime anywhere in the world.”

Newham questioned why the Gauteng government had opted for this model for the wardens, as it was not based on intensive studies on success factors globally.

“I think they’re trying to copy the Western Cape [Law Enforcement Advancement Programme] but the Western Cape do much more vetting, background checks and training of their law enforcement than in Gauteng,” he said.

Siphiwe Dlamini, head of communications for the SANDF, confirmed the arrangement between the SANDF and the Gauteng government had been finalised, adding that the first cohort had departed for training.

“SANDF can confirm that the candidates currently undergoing the Crime Prevention Wardens programme are being offered a non-military training programme which commenced on 5 February 2024 and will end on 28 March 2024,” he said.

The training programme includes drill, speech and radio procedures, leadership command and management principles, first aid/buddy aid training, as well as combating HIV/Aids through spiritual and ethical conduct, said Dlamini.

No clear mandate

Newham said the immediate concern for him about the wardens’ training with the military was that the SANDF was not a law enforcement or crime prevention agency.

“That is not their constitutional legal mandate. Their mandate is to protect the borders. Police officers’ doctrine is to serve and protect, whereas a military doctrine is to search and destroy. You can see they’re quite different.”

Newham said it would not make sense to train individuals who had not been properly vetted, and they would not receive a substantial amount of training relating to crime prevention duties because the SANDF was not equipped to do crime prevention.

“The best I can imagine is that the crime wardens will learn how to march. They’ll be physically fit and they’ll be able to follow instructions.”

Newham said the arrangement was concerning because, ultimately, the proven way to reduce crime was through building community.

“You need to recruit people who communicate very well. You recruit people with very high emotional intelligence – they’re able to read emotions, they’re able to constrain themself, they have excellent communication skills, can speak to a variety of different audiences, work in teams, apply problem-solving methods to complex social problems… that is what you require, from a crime prevention view,” he said.

A Crime Prevention Warden should be able to assist members of the community and provide them with information to keep them safe.

“Not to go off and arrest people and search people’s property – that’s a very specialist policing function,” said Newham.

Read more in Daily Maverick: AmaPanyaza: Instructors claim they were not paid as Public Protector confirms investigation

There has been no significant change in safety levels in Gauteng since the introduction of the wardens, but there have been reports of abuses of power by them.

They have also reportedly been involved in more than 20 accidents since taking possession of a fleet of new BMWs in May 2023, said Newham.

In August 2023, Daily Maverick reported on an incident in which a young man was brutally attacked in his home in Katlehong, allegedly by a group of wardens, and beaten almost to death.

Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘They started beating me, kicking me’ – Lesufi’s Gauteng crime prevention wardens accused of brutal assault

“It would help if they [Gauteng government] had a very clear idea about what they wanted crime wardens to do as part of the overall strategy… but I’ve seen no strategy document where Crime Wardens are clearly articulated,” said Newham. DM

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South Africa

Still no policing powers

Concerns over SANDF training

No clear mandate