Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation

An Analysis of Safety and Security
in the Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Area

by
Ingrid Palmary

Report prepared as part of the City Safety Project (funded by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa), 2000.

Ingrid Palmary is a Researcher in the City Safety Project at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Introduction

This report is one of four reports making up the second phase of the CSVR's City Safety project. The baseline report gave an introduction to the location and function of city safety structures in South Africa's four major cities (Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria). This report aims to delve more deeply into city safety issues in Pretoria with a particular emphasis on social crime prevention initiatives and by-law enforcement.

The Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council (GPMC) is divided into three Metropolitan Local Councils (MLCs), namely the City Council of Pretoria, the City Council of Centurion and the Northern Pretoria Metropolitan Sub-Structure. The City Council of Pretoria (CCP) is the capital city of South Africa and houses the Union buildings as well as many historical sites. This makes it a popular tourist destination. The large numbers of tourists in the area pose particular safety and security challenges, and emphasis is put on tourist safety and the protection of Members of Parliament in this region. The City Council of Centurion (CCC) is both rural and urban in nature and also has a large number of residential suburbs. Finally the Northern Pretoria Metropolitan sub-structure (NPMSS) is a rural area with a substantial amount of industrial activity. This area includes a vast township, which is historically under serviced. In addition, some cross border services are being provided by GPMC to Winterveld, Mabopane, Ga-rankuwa and other bordering areas North of the GPMC.

The GPMC serves a total population of approximately 1,585,707 people with the most densely populated areas being the historically disadvantaged townships of Rietgat and Shoshanguve, which were included in the GPMC boundary following the 1994 elections. This provides challenges in terms of service delivery and redress. In addition, the geographical location and relatively poor infrastructure in the North of GPMC make the NPMSS difficult to access.

The variations discussed above impact not only on service delivery in the GPMC but also on the safety and security needs of its constituents. Crime varies markedly between and within the three MLCs with interpersonal crimes being prominent in the poorer township areas and property related crime being prominent in both the wealthier suburbs (particularly in the CCC) and in the townships of Mamelodi, Rietgat and Shoshanguve. It would appear that historically disadvantaged areas suffer a 'double burden' of crime as they experience the crime associated with poverty as well as crimes associated with the wealth of the city as a whole such as property crime. Traffic accidents are largely located in the CCP region where there is a high density of traffic. This variation requires that localized and flexible approaches be taken to the reduction of crime in the GPMC. (Booz-Allen Hamilton, 2000). This report details the by-law enforcement and social crime prevention initiatives in the three MLCs.

The information for this report was primarily obtained through in depth interviews with key informants in the Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council (GPMC). Key informants were contacted and a snowball sample of informants developed. In addition, documents from the relevant departments in the three MLCs in Pretoria were consulted.

Structures Dealing with City Safety

The Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council

Safety and Security functions at the Metro level are located in the Community Safety Directorate of the GPMC. This directorate plays a coordinating role to ensure that the relevant role-players and initiatives function efficiently and in an integrated manner. The assumption is that there should be a centralized coordinating body and policy at the Metropolitan level with actual service delivery being decentralized to the MLCs. The services offered from the Community Safety Directorate office include:

The Community Safety Directorate has the following departments or sub-divisions:

The City Council of Pretoria (CCP)

The safety and security functions of the City Council of Pretoria are located in the office of the Director of Community Safety, which was established in 1993. The rationale behind the establishment of this department was to ensure that safety and security operated from one department and was therefore more effectively coordinated. The Community Safety Department has five divisions:

The region is divided into 'planning zones' with emergency services in each zone being coordinated by an organizer of community preparedness.

The City Council of Centurion (CCC)

Safety and Security functions in the City Council of Centurion are located in the office of the Director of Community Safety. There are four divisions:

The Northern Pretoria Metropolitan Sub-structure (NPMSS)

Safety and Security Function in the NPMSS are located in the office of the Executive Director of Community Safety with five clusters:

Resources for City Safety

The Community Safety Directorate of the GPMC has a total budget of R173 077. The budget breakdown in terms of allocations for security, traffic and administration can be seen in figure 1.

Figure 1: Budget allocations for the whole GPMC for 1999

Traffic and security receive almost equal contributions. Crime prevention activities largely fall under the security activities with by-law enforcement being undertaken by both departments.

Numbers of personnel vary greatly between the three MLCs. The breakdown of traffic and security personnel are shown in table 1.

Table 1: Number of Security and Traffic Personnel in the three MLCs
CCC NPMSS CCP
Traffic Security Traffic Security Traffic Security
113 100 20 55 385 207

Figures 2 and 3 show the approximate amount of time that is spent on by-law enforcement and crime prevention by security officials in each of the three MLCs.

Figure 2: Amount of time spent by traffic personnel on
by-law enforcement and crime prevention respectively
Figure 3: Amount of time spent by security personnel on
by-law enforcement and crime prevention respectively

There are marked disparities in the human resources available for by-law enforcement and crime prevention in the GPMC region. In the NPMSS, almost all resources of security personnel are used for crime prevention. This takes the form of guarding Council property and therefore excludes social approaches to crime prevention, which are often long term activities. Traffic and security functions in the NPMSS take place in an area in excess of 100km and are undertaken by only 75 Council officials. This means that both by-law enforcement and crime prevention are done selectively and are largely incidental activities undertaken in the course of officials other duties. This is problematic given that the areas in the NPMSS are subject to the highest rates of interpersonal crime and theft in the entire GPMC. This is equally problematic given that this MLC is responsible for the provision of services to the greatest number of people with 35.46% of the population of GPMC residing in Shoshanguve and Rietgat alone.

The CCP spend more time than the CCC on by-law enforcement. This is likely to be a response to the needs of the inner city, which has unique by-law enforcement needs, particularly relating to urban decay such as fire regulations in high rise buildings. The CCP also has a far larger traffic section than other MLCs. This is appropriate given the density of traffic and number of traffic related incidents in the area.

The Establishment of a Metropolitan Police Service In Pretoria Investigations into the feasibility of a Metropolitan police service (MPS) have been outsourced by the Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council to consultants Booz-Allen & Hamilton (South Africa) Ltd. The following recommendations were put forward on the basis of their comprehensive investigation.

The MPS has been approved in principle by the GPMC and a report drafted recommending it's establishment. This will be presented to the Twane Metropolitan Council in January 2001. The report also proposes that relevant Council officials go on an international 'best practices' tour.

However, opinions among officials in the MLCs regarding the establishment of the MPS vary enormously. Some officials stated that it was a replication of services that were already being provided by the security and traffic divisions of the MLCs. Indeed, this potential is acknowledged by the consultants, who recommend that a clear demarcation of roles be drawn between the traffic police, the SAPS and the MPS. A further drawback to the establishment of the MPS is the expense. As the executive director of the CCP Community Safety Department Dr Willem van der Waals notes:

It would be a good thing to establish a municipal police service, a very good thing, but it will cost money, additional money, and that money, I doubt whether that money is available now, no it's not available. Then when we become a megacity with all these disadvantaged areas becoming part of us … But I personally have a feeling that the National Government wants us local authorities, especially the big ones, the six Metro Councils to establish municipal policing. And I'm sure if it comes as an order from a national level then it will be done. The money will be found and there will be less money for development (Van der Waals, 2000).

Although municipal policing was seen by most officials as a benefit to the city, it was described as an expensive exercise that would detract funding from projects essential to uplifting historically disadvantaged communities. A cost-benefit analysis would, therefore, be necessary to monitor the progress and performance of the MPS once it is established. The amount needed to maintain MPS force of 475 officers and support personnel, which is the consultant's recommendation, is 108, 435, 425. This is approximately 62.65% of the total budget for Traffic, Security, Administration and Community Safety.

Crime Prevention Initiatives at Metro Level

Approaches to Coordinating a Multi-disciplinary Crime Prevention Strategy

Several areas of priority were developed for the GPMC as part of a holistic crime prevention strategy written by IDASA in 1998. The information for this report was gathered through a survey of 22 SAPS station commissioners, of crime prevention activities in the Pretoria MLCs, an analysis of the 1997 crime statistics for the Pretoria Metro area and a victimization survey in the Pretoria Metro Area (IDASA, 1998). It was felt by Council officials that these priorities were appropriate and well researched. They are:

The Greater Pretoria Safety and Security Association

The Greater Pretoria Safety and Security Association (GPSSA) is a section 21 (not for profit) company which was formed as an extension of the Greater Pretoria Crime Prevention Forum in 1998. The original motivation for the company's establishment was that there was a need for several stakeholders (such as business, communities, donor funders and individuals) to contribute to and drive crime prevention initiatives in conjunction with the GPMC. The GPSSA was intended to be a body that could manage these contributions and facilitate the projects that they were intended for. As it was not legally possible for Council to handle private financial contributions, the formation of the section 21 company was established to manage this combined funding.

The aim of the company was primarily to coordinate and drive crime prevention initiatives in the Greater Pretoria area. This coordinating role was, and still is, identified by many Council officials as crucial given the multi-disciplinary approach needed for effective crime prevention strategies. In addition, it was felt that the GPSSA had a role to play in facilitating information flow between Pretoria and other cities, in particular Johannesburg given its geographical proximity to Pretoria. Raising funds for the initiation of these projects was also a central function of the GPSSA, which has appointed two fund-raisers.

The board of the GPSSA is made up of 13 directors consisting of representatives from GPMC, City Council of Pretoria, City Council of Centurion, SAPS, and Chamber of Business. The CEO also sits on the board of directors. There is also a financial committee and a management committee. There is a projects section and a support services department with by-law enforcement and social crime prevention initiatives falling under the project section, and financial administration and marketing/fundraising falling under the administration section. However, most of these posts have not been filled and at present there are only two full time staff on the GPSSA excluding the board of directors.

The general consensus from people in various departments in the GPMC was that the rationale behind the establishment of this company was sound and that the company would have been successful if the original intentions had been carried forward.

The GPSSA has, however, faced many challenges, which have since led to its dissolution as a non-profit organization.

Finances
One of the primary problems was that business did not contribute financially to the company in a substantial way. Although the need to manage external financial contributions was one of the factors driving the establishment of the section 21 company, the funding for the company ultimately still came from the GPMC. This concern is expressed succinctly by Mr. Wiek Alberts, executive director of the Community Safety Directorate for the GPMC:

They (Council) said they will contribute and they've actually allowed 1 million to be transferred but on the condition that before the end of September the private sector should also contribute on a Rand to Rand (basis). So whatever the private sector contributes we will also contribute with the maximum of a million initially. But I mean we have the funds available and if we got the message that the private sector wants to contribute we will obviously contribute more. And from the one million they only got R60 000 [from business]. So that's one of the reasons why we actually want to de-register [the company]. (Alberts, 2000)

The main concern that business expressed about funding the GPSSA was that they couldn't be sure that the money would be spent on initiatives that would take place in their area of business or be of direct benefit to them. In addition, it was stated that Business Against Crime was a more appropriate place for business to contribute to crime prevention as the needs of business in terms of crime while a Pretotia section 21 company would need to address the interests of a wider range of stakeholders. Also, some businesses felt that taxes should form business' sole contribution to local government and additional funds for crime prevention should not be necessary.

Commitment and authority
There have been difficulties that related to the appointment and commitment of staff of the GPSSA, in particular the board of directors. The GPSSA was described as having "no teeth" as it was unable to force members of the company to carry out their briefs or attend meetings. It was felt that the failure of several of the projects initiated by the GPSSA could be attributed to the staff of the GPSSA not performing their duties. As Mr. Kleintjie van Rooyen, GPSSA project manager states:

[We] are primarily there to coordinate the initiatives of the various role-players in the field, be it business, be it local security, private firms, be it police, defence force, whatever. Due to the fact that we don't have any empowerment or authority over these role-players you invariably find that if you want to coordinate a certain thing, people don't pitch or they have all sorts of excuses and you can't really trouble them (Van Rooyen, 2000).

It was felt by the project manager of the GPSSA that if each of the MLCs took on the function of crime prevention they would be able to monitor their employees according to the White paper on Safety and Security (Government, 2000) and the National Crime Prevention Strategy (Government, 1994).

Capacity
One of the main problems with the GPSSA is that the structure that was initially proposed was not adhered to. Only two full time posts were filled namely the project manager post and the secretarial position assigned to this post. The bulk of the work related to the GPSSA is carried out by these two people. In addition, the personnel on the board and in the GPSSA are not racially representative and it was felt that they are, therefore, not sufficiently aware of the problems facing the entire community to drive the process of crime prevention forward. The result has been a top down approach driven by a few individuals. Project Manager Kleintjie Van Rooyen describes the importance of a community-driven, integrated approach to crime prevention as opposed to this top down approach:

… He based his thing [appraoch to crime prevention] on the assumption that you have police stations all throughout the whole of the city. Now, in the precinct area of that specific station you have various role-players, you have schools, you have churches, you have welfare people, you have old age homes, you have, you know, you have sports people and what have you. By means of the police forums and the police stations, they drew in all these other role-players on ground level, started doing planning as to what is the needs of the police, what's the needs of that small little community] around that station. They try to fund it themselves, otherwise each of them going up to their own organisations, the police in their case to the area commissioner, trying to budget to ask for funding, education back to education, etcetera. Each accepting the responsibility that although I'm not responsible for community safety I'm responsible for argument's sake for education or sport or tourism, crime impacts on my terrain, therefore I must try and make available x-amount within my own budget to set aside for projects in my little function or area that can contribute to crime prevention. (Van Rooyen, 2000)

The GPSSA's lack of adherence to this type of approach and to the city's approved crime prevention strategy was seen as partly responsible for it's poor success rate. Due to the difficulties described above, and the high administrative costs incurred by the company in spite of the poor returns and outputs, it has been dissolved in December 2000.

Crime Prevention Initiatives in the CCP

Operation Kwano

Operation Kwano is a joint crime prevention initiative, which takes place between the City Council of Pretoria's Department of Community Safety, the SAPS and the Central Business District. It is also the coordinating instrument for the Pretoria Inner City Partnership's priority safety and security projects (Van der Waals, 1999). These projects include the deployment of private security companies in the Tourist route in Pretoria, the management of informal trading in the city and a study into "Law Enforcement in all its Facets" for Pretoria City Council. Fourteen officers have also been recruited to control parking meters, parking problems and supporting crime prevention initiatives. These projects are financed by the CCP and have been identified as one of the most successful crime prevention initiatives in the CCP at the level of coordination of activities and impact on crime.

Visible policing

Through the development of the Kwano partnership, hotspots for crime and related priority areas for intervention were identified. In the inner city, more than 5 million is spent annually by CCP on private security, which focuses on maintaining a security presence in the inner city. Private security has been deployed to provide visible patrols and report urban decay such as damaged pavements and broken windows. Visible policing is done in cooperation with SAPS and Council and the security guards report to both organizations. A total of 120 private security personnel are funded by the CCP.

Victim Services

Trauma counseling is provided to Council employees. These services are provided by volunteers as well as specialized staff of the Council. A victim services booklet has also been developed which is a resource book of organizations that provide services to victims of crime and violence in the Greater Pretoria region.

CIDS and BIDS

The primary reason stated for the lack of business investment in the GPSSA is the lack of direct benefit that this investment has for business. Business has therefore been instrumental in establishing Business Improvement Districts (BIDS). This is done in cooperation with the CCP as some of the private security employed by Council patrol BID's. Two BID's have been established, namely Sunnyside and Church Square, both of which have been operational for approximately one year. The Sunnyside BID is intending to implement a CCTV system in the area. This will be managed privately and the BID will cover all expenses related to the system.

Public Education

Reports that community members occasionally mistook firemen for police officers led the CCP to realize that there was little awareness among the general public of what the officers who were employed by the Council should look like. For this reason, posters were developed, in which the uniforms and functions of the various Council employees were depicted. In addition, emergency numbers were publicized and information about safety in general (such as safe use of electricity) were made available. This also facilitated Council/community relationships as Council staff have engaged in education with various communities.

CCTV

Consultants were hired to investigate the feasibility of CCTV in Pretoria in 1999. This stemmed largely from a high demand from stakeholders in the inner city, particularly business. Although the report recommended the implementation of CCTV, the expense was outside of Council's budget and CCTV has therefore not been implemented. For this reason several businesses put in their own CCTV systems. The primary problem with this is that the various systems used may not be compatible should the Council want to implement a centralised CCTV system at a later stage. In addition, there is no response to an incident recorded on a private CCTV system because it is not linked to a police operated control center. This makes it an extremely reactive rather than a proactive crime prevention tool.

Crime Prevention Initiatives in CCC

City Council of Centurion – Section 21 Company

The CCC section 21 company was established before the GPSSA and was continued following the establishment of the GPSSA given that it had operated with relative success since 1996. The Centurion company seems not to have been plagued with the same number of difficulties as the GPSSA although the future funding of the company by Council is uncertain given the transition to the Unicity. Although CCC is the primary financial contributor to the company (contributing 1,5 million per year for the last four years), local business does also contribute. Often the contribution of business is in the form of sponsorships and they have, for example, provided tires for police vehicles, petrol and other resources. The funding is primarily used to support the functions of the SAPS in Centurion in the following manner:

In addition, several social crime prevention initiatives are being undertaken in Centurion.

Safer Schools Project

A safe schools project has been launched in 21 schools in Centurion. Each school appoints a safe schools committee including a guardian teacher a responsible police officer and a person from the CCC Security Department. This team examines the school premises for security risks, prioritises the risks and then develops projects to address the high-priority safety risks. Pamphlets have been developed relating to this initiative, with a checklist of safety issues to be considered when addressing school security. Fingerprints and photographs are also taken of children at the school and kept on record in case a child goes missing or is badly injured. A copy of these fingerprints and photographs is kept by the child's parents as well as by the Council.

Crime Reporting

The CCC has a web-site where crime can be reported anonymously. To encourage reporting, stickers have been given to children, which publicise the contact numbers for the police and the child protection line where they can report if they are victims of crime. There is also a pledge for children to sign, stating that they will not become involved in any criminal activities and that they will report any criminal activity that they witness. In addition, the CCC sits on the four community policing forums and has taken part in the watchtower project, which trains domestic workers on safety and security and what to do in an emergency.

Public Education

Educational initiatives are undertaken by CCC officials in schools that explain what crime prevention is, how to prevent it and how to make emergency plans. Talks on traffic safety have also been held with schools. Information and ideas on holiday activities for children are also given to schools to reduce involvement of youth in crime during the holidays. Self-defense classes are given for women and children. Pamphlets on women's safety are also distributed through public services such as libraries, particularly on Women's day. These have information on how to avoid being a victim of crime, information on the Prevention of Family Violence Act and other related topics.

Victim Services

The Council also has a drug crisis center. Council provided the property for this center from which intervention projects are run. They also pay the salaries of the staff who include a medical doctor, a psychologist and a social worker. In addition, this house is used as a rape crisis center where rape victims, particularly children can go. The police, doctors, counsellors and other relevant officials meet the victim at the house rather than the victims having to go to the police station.

Crime Prevention Initiatives in NPMSS

The NPMSS has extremely limited personnel and finances and is responsible for an very large jurisdiction of approximately 60, 442 hectares including Shoshanguve and Rietgat major townships. This makes the initiation and participation in crime prevention initiatives extremely difficult. The primary focus of the NPMSS is the enforcement of traffic by-laws and the protection of Council property. A project was initiated from Metro level that aimed to create a market where vegetables could be sold in the Shoshoguve area. The intention was to create jobs, thus indirectly contributing to crime reduction, but this project was not adequately sustained.

Relations between Local Government and SAPS

All three MLCs and the Community Safety Directorate reported good relations with SAPS on the whole. The CCP reported having regular meetings with the SAPS in their areas and working with them in an integrated manner. As Mr. Opperman, the head of general policing at the CCC states:

We work perfectly together. We work very well together, what I do is on a daily and weekly basis I contact all the PROs of all four police stations, we have four police stations in our area and so we work very closely with them. (Opperman, 2000)

In the Greater Pretoria Region, this relationship is facilitated by the fact that the SAPS area boundaries and the Pretoria Metro boundaries are relatively well matched. However, some difficulties were reported, with Council officials expressing the view that SAPS feel threatened by work undertaken by Council that overlaps with SAPS functions. In addition, there were occasional problems with a lack of SAPS cooperation as expressed by one of the respondents:

I tried to obtain statistics, the police have clamped down on statistics, absolutely clamped down. I don't know why, that's definitely not transparency. It tends to hide something you know. But we cannot, we cannot get statistics out of them. (Anonymous respondent, 2000)

By-Law Enforcement

Most by-law enforcement is devolved to the Local Councils with the GPMC enforcing only the by-laws relating to finance. Not all by-laws are enforced to an equal degree. This has meant that in all three MLCs, certain by-laws receive priority over others. This is largely determined by the issues that are most pertinent in that location, although capacity for by-law enforcement also determines whether they are enforced or not.

By-law enforcement in CCP

The City Council of Pretoria has implemented a land invasion monitoring project. This project involves 24 hour surveillance of particular areas. Although this project has been highly effective it is expensive, costing in the region of R4-5 million per year (this figure includes only surveillance without consequent evictions). It was felt that some social crime prevention initiatives suffered financially because of the expense of this project.

The Kwano project has focused on the enforcement of hawking by-laws in the inner city. The formalisation of informal traders has been a primary focus particularly in the inner city area. This enforcement is undertaken by Council officials who are given information about the contravention of by-laws by the private security guards hired to monitor this area.

By-Law Enforcement in CCC

One focus area for by-law enforcement in Centurion is the formalisation of the parking attendants and car washers. They were donated buckets and jackets in return for being allowed to continue with their car washing activities. The car washers provide the Council with information on cars that are being stolen or broken into in the area. During the times when the car washers are on duty, there is a marked decrease in the car thefts in the area.

In order to patrol the more rural areas of Centurion more effectively, motorcycles have been purchased. This has improved the Council's ability to effectively monitor by-law infringements in the more rural parts of its jurisdiction.

Patrols in shopping centers after hours have been implemented to ensure compliance with the liquor by-laws. Dogs are used in these patrols to find liquor, which have effectively addressed the public nuisance associated with drinking in public spaces.

CCC has a traffic court operational 2 days per week through which traffic violations are prosecuted. Resources for the traffic court are provided by the Traffic Division of the CCC, with the magistrate and the public prosecutor being supplied by the Department of Justice.

By-Law Enforcement in NPMSS

The NPMSS focuses particularly on the enforcement of traffic by-laws and by-laws relating to council property. Due to the financial constraints facing this area, by-laws are enforced during the course of the everyday duties of traffic officers and security personnel rather than through specialised enforcement operations.

Problems Facing By-Law Enforcement in the GPMC

Several difficulties were identified with the enforcement of by-laws. Firstly, by-laws have not been reviewed for many years and it was recognized that many by-laws were outdated. As a result of the laws being outdated, some situations are not covered by outdated by-laws. For example, Mr. Opperman states that:

People stand next to the street ..they're standing in front of somebody's yard and I mean there might be 20 or 30 [people]. There's no toilet facilities, they might be using the tree or the wall or something like that and they might you know put papers there or leave stuff there, they might sleep there in front of the house and now you know you feel unsafe. Now you ask Council to act and there's something like "loitering" in our "street and miscellaneous by-laws" but we're not allowed to do that because the Constitution says you're allowed to walk where you want to … So that needs to be revised or something needs to be written so that you can do something about the problem, or it needs to be addressed in a different way (Opperman, 2000).

Also, some by-laws made were also seen as difficult to enforce. This was particularly the case in the face of financial constraints. For example, it was felt that building by-laws disadvantaged small businesses by making it very expensive to build premises.

In addition, some areas, such as informal settlements or historically disadvantaged areas did not have the funds to maintain the standards required by by-laws. This has led to a situation where by-laws were enforced in some areas but not in others. This is highly problematic as it presents as a 'dual standard' in service delivery. This is also likely to be the case where the Council lacks the personnel to enforce all by-laws equally.

There is also a need for a single set of by-laws that serves the whole of the GPMC. This will go some distance in ensuring equality in the different MLCsThe by-laws are diverse and fall under many different departments. This means that there needs to be coordination between different departments to avoid duplication and to develop more streamlined and effective enforcement operations. As Mr. Alberts notes:

I mean at this stage we've got different departments and obviously your fire safety guys are in one division or one department, your health in another and so on. There should be a mechanism where you will coordinate by-law enforcement. (Alberts, 2000)

The consultants hired by the GPMC will be instrumental in advising the Council how this coordination can best take place.

Challenges Facing GPMC

The development of the MPS is one of the main challenges facing the GPMC in the immediate future. In particular a need was identified to adjust present training of relevant officials to meet the requirements of the MPS. The need for a set of operating procedures and policies related to the development of the MPS was identified.

The three MLCs in the GPMC vary widely in terms of the funds and resources that they have. Areas disadvantaged under apartheid legislation have largely remained under-serviced and experience high levels of crime. Addressing the stark inequalities in the region is paramount. With the implementation of the Unicity structure there will be a need to extend safety and security services to the areas which have the most pressing needs. These included the presently understaffed areas in the NPMSS as well as historically disadvantaged areas. This will probably require a reduction in the current budgets of well resourced areas. Alongside this redistribution is the need for uniform enforcement of by-laws in all areas. Issues of redistribution are of concern to both the CCC and the CCP as there is uncertainty regarding which projects will be able to continue if budgets are reduced. However, there is a surprising pessimism in the NPMSS about the impact that the Unicity will have for them. It is felt by several officials in the NPMSS that the Unicity will have no impact on their current difficult situation.

The Unicity development does, however, present an opportunity to address some of the present problems facing the GPMC. For example, the transformation of the Council structures could ensure that the Council officials are more racially and gender representative, which would bring valuable diversity to the projects and approaches of the Council. The Unicity developments could also bring a different approach to crime prevention and by-law enforcement, along more community based lines. In addition, the Unicity is an opportunity to revisit by-laws that are outdated or develop by-laws to address contemporary city safety issues.

The extension of social crime prevention initiatives in Pretoria is pressing. It was acknowledged that enforcement and prevention initiatives are often competing for scarce funding, and there is a need for greater recognition of the importance of social crime prevention strategies.

References

Alberts, W. (2000, October 16). Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council: Community Safety Directorate. Personal interview.

Booz-Allen Hamilton. (2000). Final report of the feasibility study for the establishment of a municipal police service for the greater Pretoria. Pretoria: Unpublished document.

Department of Safety and Security. (1996). In service of safety. Pretoria: Government Printers.

Department of Safety and Security. (1994). National Crime Prevention Strategy. Pretoria: Government Printers.

Greater Pretoria Safety and Security Association. (1999). GPSSA United against crime: Business Plan 1999-2004. Pretoria: Unpublished document.

IDASA. (1998). Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council: Crime prevention strategy. Pretoria: Unpublished document.

Opperman, C. (2000, October 10). Centurion Town Council: Department of Security Services. Personal Interview.

Van der Waals, W. (1999). An introduction to the City Council of Pretoria's community safety department. Pretoria: Unpublished document.

Van der Waals, W. (2000 October 10). City Council of Pretoria. Personal interview.

Van Rooyen, K. (2000, October 4). Greater Pretoria Safety and Security Association. Personal interview.

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