The KwaZulu-Natal Justice Crime Prevention and Security Cluster have just concluded its quarterly meeting with a crime imbizo at the area of Umzimkhulu. This is part of the initiative aimed at bringing the law closer to the people for better understanding and protection.
When addressing the 3 000 strong crowd in attendance MEC for Transport,
Community Safety and Liaison Bheki Cele said: “The time for excuses is over.”
He went on to say that public servants must not keep their office seats warm, but rather go out to the public and bring their services closer to the people.
Local leaders such as Amakhosi who had come out in their numbers to attend the event were asked to engage government and if necessary invite departments such as Home Affairs and the South African Social Services Agency (SASSA) to their communities so that their people can be afforded easy access to the services provided by government.
“Government must come to the people and not the other way round,” MEC Cele said. He continued to say that ordinary South Africans are too poor to use transport fares to government offices, whereas government departments have budgets. These budgets must be used by every department to come to the people.
“Government employees I want to warn you, there has been a change of guard.” This he said just before he instructed the Umzimkhulu police to plan and implement a house to house raid on every home in Umzimkhulu to stop the trend of harbouring criminals and stolen goods.
The community members in attendance were given an opportunity to air their complaints and concerns on general service delivery in the area. One of the things that came out is that there is a poor response rate from the police in the area. On this, the MEC said such complaints from the community must come to an end and this can only happen when the police take their jobs seriously.
Source: Department of Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
