Assessing City Safety Arrangements in Durban:
August 2000

by

Mzi Memeza

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

Mzi Memeza is a former Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

Background and Methodology

This is the second in a series of reports analyzing developments in city safety in South Africa's four major cities. It attempts to present a more detailed analysis of developments in Durban than was possible in our first report.¹ The report also attempts to trace the changes which have taken place subsequent to the launch of a Metro Police Service (MPS) in Durban,² which is significant because it is the first MPS established in terms of the South African Police Services Amendment Act no. 83 of 1998.

The analysis of city safety in the Durban metro as presented here is grounded primarily on information gathered through in-depth interviews conducted with safety and security officials in the Durban Metropolitan Council and other role players in the field of safety and security in Durban. The interviews were conducted through the use of a structured questionnaire. The interviews were recorded and transcribed.

Structures Dealing with Safety and Security in the Durban Metro

The Durban Metropolitan Council (DMC) is the controlling administrative body of the Durban metro area, and currently consists of six structures known as the Metropolitan Local Councils³ (MLC's). Political representation at the central Metro council is made up of representatives from the MLC's as well as some dedicated Metro Councillors elected on the basis of proportional representation.

On May 1999 an agreement was signed between the six MLC's and the DMC in terms of which the former ceded⁴ their competency in the areas of fire, disaster management, and security to the Metro administration. The May 1999 agreement had prepared and laid firm foundations for the effective functioning of an integrated metro- wide police service. According to Sid Brettel of the Safer Cities Office in Durban 'the agreement saw the transfer of resources to the Metro, thereby preparing the city for the establishment of a Metro Police Service'. This, coupled with a prior city policing framework provided by the (already existing) Durban City Police, made Durban unique in comparison with other cities. There has been a strong element of centralization in Durban's approach to city safety for some time, which has laid a strong foundation for the establishment of a unified MPS in Durban.

The structure of each MLC consists of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and four Directors; the Director of Community Services, Emergency Services, Protection Services and Financial Services. Prior to the establishment of the Metro Police Service in July 2000, safety and security functions at MLC level were located in the Community Services Directorates. Now all safety and security functions will be managed through the MPS, although the structures of the MPS have not yet been finalised.

The Unicity's Integrated Development Plan (IDP) is an attempt to utilize each and every local council department's resources and capacity to assist others. So far, the IDP process has undertaken a strategic analysis of the development context of the entire metropolitan area and has discovered that the jurisdictional fragmentation and the limited success in co-ordinating the various sectors or departments remains a huge challenge. In the context of scarce resources and a lack of capacity cited by the officials of the Durban Metro and representatives of the Durban MPS, the IDP could provide a framework and help facilitate the creation of new and innovative service delivery mechanisms. The IDP will also help in the identification of possible areas of collaboration amongst departments to ensure maximum and effective outcomes.

Resources for City Safety in Durban

The resources for city safety in the Durban Metro are disbursed from the Emergency Services department of the Durban Metro Council. The Emergency Services department administers a budget totaling R360 million⁵ (for the financial year 1999/2000) allocated to fire and emergency, loss control and disaster management, the metro police, electronic resources, human resources and finance. The metro police is allocated R178 million which is distributed to their six "regions"⁶ with geographical area and need as the determining factors. Apart from an allocation to the MPS, the Metro council also contributes to various projects which seek to enhance city safety as principal sponsors or co-funders. The Cato Manor and the Warwick junction project are cases in point. The Cato Manor Development Project is funded by the European Union, the Durban Metro Council, and the Department of Housing; unlike the Warwick Junction Project which the DMC funds, but administratively, everything is managed by a section 21 Company. In the case of Cato Manor, the Durban Metro Council goes beyond its 50% grant to the Cato Manor Development Project but also includes the political and administrative oversight over of project, and hence the DMC is 'principal' of the project. The Metro Council's Emergency services department also funds the Durban Safer City Project to the tune of and some of the funds come from the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement (Habitat UNCHS).⁷

As highlighted earlier on, the bulk of Durban's Emergency Services resources are dedicated to the MPS in the six "regions". The Inner West region's annual budget, both for the MPS and the council security mandate (i.e. the guarding of council property and staff), stands at R26 million with a R0. 98 million capital budget for safety and security. The North region receives an annual budget of R20,4 million whilst the South region receives an annual budget of 10 million. The Outer West region's budget allocation is the lowest R1,5 million. It is worth noting that geographical area and population play a very crucial role in the allocation of monies to the various regions. The North and South Central (encompassing the Durban city centre, the main beach area, Cato Manor and Chesterville) accounts for the largest budget allocation; followed by the North and South which have a mix of suburban and township and squatter settlements.

Metro Policing

Following the submission of Durban's proposal to Kwa Zulu Natal's Member of the Executive Committee (MEC) for Safety and Security, on the 12th of January 2000, the application for the establishment of the MPS in Durban was approved by Provincial Cabinet and the MEC for safety and security. The Durban MPS was then established as a legal entity with effect from July 2000.

Crime Prevention Initiatives

The Durban Safer City Office

The Safer Cities Office is a crime prevention project started in 1999, following a collaborative agreement between the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement (Habitat UNCHS), and the Durban Metropolitan Council. The project co-ordinates crime prevention initiatives at metro level within the framework of the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS). The project aims to align all interested local, provincial and national role players on inter-departmental and inter-agency levels. The project aims to reduce crime as well as to lessen the fear of crime in Durban, creating a safer environment where economic enterprise and community life can flourish.

The Safer Cities Project has successfully managed to create a platform for partnership building and collaborative work on crime prevention amongst the various stakeholders in Durban. The Safer Cities steering committee consists of members from Business Against Crime (BAC), the Durban Metropolitan Council, the six Municipal Local Councils, the Metro Police Service, and the South African Police Service. It is staffed by full-time crime prevention practitioners and a police consultant from Kingston in the United Kingdom (to assist in the development of the MPS). In addition to the objective of co- ordinating the crime prevention activities of all agencies in the Metro, another crucial role of the Safer Cities Office is the development of a strategy to reduce crime in the Durban metro. The first draft of this strategy has been completed already.

The Safer Cities Office at Durban Metro Council has also established a Research Advisory Group which consists of researchers, academics, local non-governmental organizations and victim empowerment groups. The Advisory Group advises the Safer Cities Office on research and aspects of social crime prevention.

The Great Warwick Junction Avenue and Grey street Urban Renewal Project

The Warwick project, apart from its safety and security component also aims to achieve the following: attract local and foreign investment into the area; facilitate the provision of better transport; to strengthen the informal economy; the provision of social housing and the improvement of living conditions of the dwellers of the area.

This is modeled along the lines of a 'City Improvement District' (CID). The project is situated in Warwick, an area that makes up a large portion of the central business district- with the main bus station, train stations and taxi ranks situated in this area. It has record of 300 000 citizens utilizing it as daily passers by, commuters or shoppers. The project included the provision of new infrastructure such as multipurpose centres and conducive environments for street traders to carry out their business activities. The project also revamped the streets, lighting and sanitation in the area, and through this, created conditions in which criminal activity could not flourish. The project led to a drop in the high crime incidences previously reported around the Warwick area.

Cato Manor Development Project

The Cato Manor development project is a Presidential urban renewal project. It is a social housing initiative which was initially conceived as a housing project to deliver houses to poorer people in a squatter area. The high levels of crime in the area hampered the housing development, and consequently a safety and security component was built into the housing project. The project provides useful lessons and cautions against the romantization of housing projects or any poverty alleviation initiatives as simple solutions to the problems of crime and violence. An Environmental Impact Assessment and Design study was carried out in the area, and its findings were integrated into the housing project enabling a development framework that is both holistic and has broad impact on quality of life.

Closed Circuit Television Network (CCTV)

Developed by the Durban City Police and now managed and controlled by the MPS, the CCTV is a system of sharing technology for crime prevention and detection. CCTV is installed in selected areas prone to criminal activity like the beach front and densely populated business areas in the city.

The Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

The Durban Metro Council also has its own geographic information system (GIS). The potential of the GIS as a crime mapping and combating tool has prompted the Council to initiate a project which would enable SAPS to access and effectively utilize the system. However the process of starting this collaboration has been slow.

Metro Police Crime Prevention Initiatives

A dedicated crime prevention unit is to be found only at the MPS at central metro level. At a metro level, the MPS crime prevention unit is mainly concerned with combating drug trafficking⁸ The unit has satellite stations and bases set up around the beach area- mostly in accommodation and hotels. Human and high-tech surveillance is carried out around these areas 24 hours whilst reconnaissance personnel stands by. The Unit also has a 24 hour help desk for abusers and drugs and parents who wish to report incidences of child drug abuse.

The central region of the MPS admit to their lack of a comprehensive crime prevention strategy and attribute this partly to their lack of understanding of the concept. The Safer Cities office is seen as a panacea to this problem and their strategy is expected to provide a crime prevention framework.⁹

The MPS (central region) initiatives include the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI)¹⁰ initiated "Trader Against Crime" (TAC) – which is a group of traders who know their area and can easily spot criminal elements and criminal activity when it happens around their area, and report immediately to the SAPS or the Metro Police. MPS (central region) is also involved in public education concerning road safety in conjunction the Department of Transport.¹¹

There are no dedicated crime prevention units in the other five MPS regions. However there are crime prevention initiatives underway. Almost all the heads of the Metro Police in the four regions don't see a need for a focus or a separate unit dealing with issues of crime prevention. This is largely due to the fact that crime prevention is not seen as a distinct undertaking from their day to day policing duties. A clear example of this can be found in one MPS officer's words:

we do not have a crime prevention unit because my officers do crime prevention on a daily basis. ¹²

The other visible crime prevention initiatives by the MPS regions are their participation in the Community Police Forums (but not in all the regions), in the national government's Arrive Alive Campaign, road traffic safety training in schools, and the partnerships which are already functional between the council and the business community in the various regions. These partnerships are largely geared towards preventing crime.

Relations Between Local Government and SAPS in Durban

Relations between The Durban Metropolitan Council, the Metro Police and SAPS in Durban are very healthy. The degree to which this was expressed was marked. The MPS hold weekly meetings with the SAPS to review crime trends, statistics, and plan future joint operations. In addition to these, there are monthly 'Commissioner's Meetings' held in Mpumalanga and Pinetown to identify possible areas of collaboration. This joint functioning is happening despite the fact that the co- ordinating committees envisaged in the Police Amendment Act have not yet been formally established.

By-law Enforcement

Pending the appointment of the Chief of the MPS, the MPS is controlled and administered from the Emergency Services Unit of the Durban Metro Council. The MPS central region is based at the former Durban City Police (DCP) Headquarters at the Old Fort building, whilst the other four MPS regions correlate with MLC jurisdictions.¹³ The MPS finds its role and location in the MLC's through what were previously the local traffic departments, although the metro police have a wider mandate than the former traffic departments.

There is a proposed new MPS structure on the table for Durban and in the meantime, the structure is based on the previous structure of the traffic or DCP departments in each region. The work-load of the MPS is far greater than that of the previous Durban City Police. This is as a result of the fact that the officers not only have to enforce the Road Traffic act but are now also faced with the challenge of enforcing municipal by-laws and initiating crime prevention. These challenges are also reflected in the way the capacity of the force has been stretched.

The Metro Police enforces all the municipal by-laws excluding building by-laws, health by-laws, planning by-laws and fire by-laws. The health, building, planning and fire by-laws are enforced by the respective department's agencies or inspectors. However, as one Metro Police officer says 'we are not totally detached from these departments, we assist them (health, building, fire and planning) in enforcing by-laws particularly if they have problems with enforcement'.¹⁴ The most prominent problem identified by the Health, Building, Planning and Fire departments was that of accessing premises, either for seizure of goods or service of summons, and this is where the MPS assists. There is no official agreement or framework defining and regulating the working relationship between the various council enforcement entities, rather collaboration between the Metro Police service and the departments happens on an adhoc basis. The establishment of a Metro police service will require the standardisation of the by-laws from all the regions or municipal local councils. Prior to the advent of a metro police, the municipal by-law enforcement agencies in the various councils could easily earmark areas of concern and identify priority areas. This degree of certainty enabled the officials to monitor and control the enforcement of their by-laws from time to time. In the eyes of MLC officials, the issue of geographic proximity¹⁵ plays a crucial role. In certain areas, for instance, patterns of behavior, or acts that are prohibited and punished have been traced over time and, consequently, there are traditional views among council officials as to what area of by-law enforcement needs to be prioritized. However, this has sometimes resulted in an over- concentration on certain areas, to the detriment of others. The skills and expertise of the by-law enforcement officials have also been geared towards operating only in certain areas.

The implications of the amalgamation process (both within the context of the MPS's new mandate and the forthcoming unicity) are far-reaching. From the point of view of safety and security, the MPS has laid firm foundations for unicity developments. The challenge for the MPS is to adapt to the changed environment, particularly in the area of by-law enforcement. In the words of an official:

the key problem is the amalgamation of all areas and the fact that there's lot of uncertainty as regards which by-laws will have to be enforced.¹⁶

The idea of a creating a task team to review all by-laws is widely supported in MPS circles. The terms of reference of the task team would need to include assessing the training needs of the by-law enforcement officials and the management of the move from a fragmented by-law system to a unified one. At a more practical level, the MPS officers cited an urgent need a for manual that could provide officers with information on which by-laws they are supposed to enforce, and what provisions the current municipal by-laws contain.

Civil Law Strategies

The efficacy of civil law strategies depends on the co- ordination between the departments which have an indirect role to play in crime prevention and safety security. There is presently no co- ordination between the departments of health, building and planning aimed at aiding other crime prevention agencies in the council or elsewhere.

Challenges

The challenges for city safety in Durban are significant, although Durban is well ahead of South Africa's other major cities in some respects.

The Introduction of the MPS

The introduction of the MPS fundamentally changed the city's approach to safety. The response from the public, practitioners in the area of safety and crime prevention and interest groups has been positive. However, one critical component, which has been left unattended, is the impact of the new organisational structure on the MPS officers. The new organisational culture, way of operating and skills requirements have left officers feeling increasingly insecure and uncertain about their impact in certain areas of operation, particularly by-law enforcement. The amalgamation of all the traffic departments into a single MPS has meant that the officers have to adapt to new operating methods, they have new by-law systems to deal with, and a new organisational culture which expresses itself in a new organisational and command structure. It would appear that the officials were not prepared for these challenges. Training and orientation programmes about each of the new MPS "regions" have been suggested as a solution to this problem.

Crime Prevention

Crime prevention remains a huge challenge in Durban. As in most cities in South Africa, it still means many different things to different role players in Durban. With the exception of stakeholders such as BAC, Safer Cities and some MPS circles, it is largely interpreted as a police activity which focuses on perpetrators.

Through the Safer City office, the Metro Council has been able to initiate or support various projects with a crime prevention focus, but the importance of inculcating a crime prevention focus within the MPS, in particular, remains crucial.

It is important, as well, to note that establishing a crime prevention 'unit' is not the only possible avenue for dealing with issues of crime prevention. The fact that many MPS officials do not see the need for a dedicated crime prevention unit may have negative implications for the institutionalization of crime prevention in the ranks of the MPS. On the other hand, some officials have cited an interest in developing a crime prevention focus in their units, but admit to a lack of a proper understanding of the term 'crime prevention'. The MPS officials point to the Durban Metro as an organization that is supposed to give direction in this regard, and, interestingly, some metro officials admit to their own inability to grapple with the question of crime prevention, expecting the forthcoming Safer Cities' strategy document to provide a blueprint on the issue. They also emphasise the need for the inclusion of crime prevention in the present training packages for various central officials and MPS officers. The critical points here are defining the crime prevention role of the MPS, and getting other council departments and officials to understand crime prevention and how they can contribute.

By-law Enforcement

In the area of by-law enforcement, whilst there is an overwhelming need for training, there are differences (across Durban) in terms of emphasis. The North and Inner West regions felt that the consolidation and standardization of by-laws throughout the metro region is a development for which they are not well prepared, and that training on the enforcement of other sets of by-laws (which they haven't done before) would be useful. In other regions - the South and Outer West – the proliferation of by-laws was noted, and it was suggested that a process of review, followed by a rationalization of by-laws was needed. Training was considered as a viable avenue for enabling the officers to acquaint themselves with these developments.

Reference List

Durban Safer City Office (2000). Safer City Durban 2000. draft strategy document.

Durban Safer City Office (31 May 2000). Presentation to the Unicity Committee. 2000.

Durban Metro Urban Strategy Department (1999). Quality of Life Surveys.

Meyer Jani (2000) City Police on their Way Out. Daily News, June 14 2000.

Ngcobo, M. (July 2000). Jamaica on the Road to Development. IZWI Cato Manor Community Newspaper 36.

Durban Unicity Committee (15 November 1999). Revised Unicity IDP/ LTDS Process Proposal.

Department of safety and Security The South African Police Services Amendment Act no 83 of 1998. Pretoria: Government Printer.

http://www.epages.net (September 2000). Durban Metro [On-line]. Available Internet: http://www.durban.org.za.

Acknowledgements

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation's (CSVR) City Safety Project would like to acknowledge and thank the following individuals and organisations for their time, co-operation and patience in the completion of this phase of the project. This paper would not have been possible had these individuals and organisations in Durban not made themselves available for interviews:

Sid Brettel	Durban Safer Cities Office
Jim Gouws	Durban Metro Police Service: Inner West Region
Richard Griggs	Independent Projects Trust
Bheki Gumede	University of Natal, Durban
Jan Keet	Durban Metro Police Service: North Region
Terry Lang	Durban Metro Police Service: South Region
Ted Legget	Editor: Crime and Conflict, University of Natal, Durban
Titus Malaza	Durban Metropolitan Council: Emergency Services Unit
Monique Marks	University of Natal, Durban
Mduduzi Mashiyane	Durban Safer Cities Office
Frances O'Brien	University of Natal, Durban
Chris Overall	Durban Metro Police Service: Central
John Sanderson	Durban Metropolitan Council/ MPS
Johan Truter	Durban Metro Police Service: Outer West Region
Eddie Van Bagen	Durban Metro Police: Central
Sibusiso Xulu	The Cato Manor Development Project

Notes:

¹ Memeza and Rauch (2000)

² Memeza and Rauch (2000)

³ Inner West, Outer West, North Central, South Central, North and South Municipal Local Councils.

⁴ This agreement excluded traffic which was later subsumed into the Metro administration with the inception of the MPS.

⁵ This does not include expenditure by MLC's which is independent of the Metro.

⁶ There are currently six regions, but so far only four Regional Heads of the MPS have been appointed.

⁷ Plus R800 000 made up of R200 000 from each MLC and R300 000 from the UN.

⁸ However, the central region's emphasis on drug trafficking suggests that their crime prevention approach is not comprehensive, as there are many other safety problems in the central part of the city.

⁹ See footnote 3.

¹⁰ Business against Crime has also created an alliance with various business sectors in the Durban area so that their different safety needs can be identified and presented to the SAPS and the Durban metro police. The role BAC in Durban in aligning various stakeholders and interested parties in fighting crime is worth noting.

¹¹ All traffic agencies have this responsibility.

¹² Interview with Jan Keet: Head of MPS in the North region 27.07.00

¹³ Although this may change when the unicity and regional boundaries are finalised.

¹⁴ Interview, Lang, 27.08.00.

¹⁵ That they had to enforce by- laws on a manageable geographic scale

¹⁶ Interview, Johan Truter Outer West, 28.0700

© Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation