MONDAY, 3.30PM:
SAFETY and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi today summoned the national and provincial police commissioners and safety and security MECs to an urgent meeting in Pretoria on Wednesday to discuss the deteriorating crime situation in the country.
News of the meeting emerged at a meeting today of the gauteng legislature’s standing committee on safety and security, at which the committee decided to summon provincial police commissioner Sharma Maharaj and the area commissioners for Johannesburg and Soweto for a meeting next Tuesday to explain what steps are being taken to curb runaway crime in the province.
Committee chairman Obed bapela (ANC) said their is a feeling that “things are not working” in the fight against crime. Committee member Peter Leon (DP), referrring to recent murders and attacks on prominent businesspeople, said police plans to fight crime “just don’t seem to be working”. Kerensa Millard (ANC) said there is public hysteria about crime and the meeting is urgent.
The committee was expected to be briefed in closed session by Safety and Security MEC Jessie Duarte today.
Mufamadi’s office this afternoon denied calling an emergency crime summit. His spokesman, Maxwell Mulaudzi, said he was unaware of the meeting.