Day: November 28, 2022

Minister Allen and provincial SAPS Commissioner Lt Gen Patekile to unpack Western Cape 2nd quarter crime stats

Tomorrow, 29 November 2022, Western Cape Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Reagen Allen, will engage the Western Cape Police Commissioner, Lt Gen Thembisile Patekile on the 2nd quarter crime statistics for the province.

Following this engagement, a briefing will be held to unpack the crime statistics.

Minister Allen said: “I’m looking forward to the engagement and the briefing. The crime statistics are once again showing encouraging signs in the areas where the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) is being deployed. As the Western Cape government, we remain committed to working with all law-abiding stakeholders to combat crime in its entirety.”

All media are invited to attend.

Source: Government of South Africa

UIF pays over R7 Million to 1746 former Educator Assistants and General Assistants in Kwazulu-Natal

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), an entity of the Department of Employment and Labour, has processed and paid out R7,7 million to 1746 former Educator Assistants and General Assistants who reside within the area of the Amajuba District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal Province.

Payments were made between 21-25 November, as part of a project and build-up activities to the recent District Development Model (DDM) Imbizo that was led by Employment and Labour Minister, Thulas Nxesi.

The former Educator Assistants were employed as part of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI), which was implemented as the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI) across all nine provinces in the country to reduce youth unemployment in the country.

When their contracts ended, the former employees qualified to claim unemployment benefits from the UIF. Due to the large volume of claims anticipated and to prevent long queues at Labour Centres, the UIF team in KwaZulu-Natal met with the Provincial Department of Education in Amajuba and agreed on a consolidated approach. This included the Department availing venues while the Fund confirms the compliance of the former workers in terms of their employment history, declarations, and contributions.

“After confirming the UIF compliance of the Education Assistants and General Assistants, we started visiting the venues availed by the Department of Education to process and pay the claims. The process was easy and without hiccups because we had already confirmed the employment history, contributions and declarations. All the claims were made without any paperwork from clients because they used their smartphones to access the uFiling system and apply for benefits,” said Gugu Khomo, the UIF Deputy Director in KwaZulu-Natal.

Nomthandazo Bophela, a former Educator Assistant at Ubuhle boMzinyathi Secondary School, said the claim process on her phone was quick. “I am truly grateful and I hope the UIF maintains the good service to other clients,” she said.

Yenziwe Simelane, another former Educator Assistant, spoke outside the Amajuba Education Centre, and said: “The UIF officials were friendly and helpful and the entire process was quick. The best part is that I received my payment.”

The UIF in KwaZulu-Natal will be rolling out the project to other parts of the province and will announce dates and details in due course.

Source: Government of South Africa

Invitation to Public Hearings:  Gender Transformation Hearings in the Private and Public Sector

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) will on 29-30 November 2022, conduct Employment Equity Hearings on the review of transformation in the public and private sector. In accordance with the powers outlined in the CGE Act, as amended, the CGE continuously draws a sample of Directors General (DGs) from the public sector, and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from the private sector, for them to account for the slow pace of gender transformation in their respective workplaces. They are  also requested to account for the inadequate promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment, particularly for women with disabilities.

After these hearings, the Commission will develop recommendations to help the two  sectors implement ways to ensure the realisation of gender equality in the workplace.

Objectives of the Hearings

The objective of these transformation hearings with both the public and private sector amongst others is to:

• Assess compliance with employment equity legislation and its policies;
• Assess compliance with other transformation legislation and its policies;
• Assess the impact of transformation legislation and policies on persons with disability, women and other previously disadvantaged in the public and private sector;
• Address institutional and systematic barriers to economic and gender diversity in the workplace on the progress of women and persons with disability;
• Raise awareness of relevant international commitments to gender transformation and the importance of compliance;
• Raise and address transformation policy gaps and implementation challenges;
• Make findings and recommendations of the necessary improvements and corrections to improve policy implementation;
• To consult and liaise with relevant stakeholders for their input on all the above,
• Monitoring the implementation of the Commission’s recommendations by each public or private entity.

Source: Government of South Africa

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and the City of Cape Town are inviting residents to nominate individuals or organisations by 15 December, to be acknowledged with Civic Honours in 2023.

Since the nominations opened in October this year, several hundred applications have been received. There are just more than two weeks left to get your nominations in.

“The City confers these honours to acknowledge individuals or organisations that have distinguished themselves through extraordinary acts of service, outstanding contributions to the wider city community, personal sacrifice and contributions to nation building. I am looking forward to celebrating all those individuals and organisations that work tirelessly to make Cape Town the great city that it is,” said Mayor Hill-Lewis.

The awards are conferred in the following main categories:

Freedom of the City

This is the City’s highest and most prestigious award, bestowed only rarely, upon individuals, military units or organisations that have distinguished themselves exceptionally and brought global acclaim to Cape Town. Examples of Freemen of the City include former President and Nobel Laureate, Nelson Mandela, as well as Nobel Laureate, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

The Mayor’s Medal

This prestigious award acknowledges outstanding contributions that are made voluntarily by individuals or associations in a number of different fields: community service; the arts; social services; youth affairs; recreation and sport; conservation; economic affairs; animal welfare and extraordinary bravery.

Signing of the Civic Honours Book

This is an invitation to sign or inscribe one’s name against a citation of his/her achievement in the ‘Civic Honours Book’. This book is kept by the City for future generations to remember Cape Town’s greatest citizens.

Freedom of Entry into the City

The Freedom of Entry into the City is given to military units to recognise outstanding service given to their country and city. Military units that receive this honour may march through the streets of Cape Town during all ceremonial and other occasions with ‘swords drawn, bayonets fixed, drums beating and colours flying’.

A Civic Honour may be conferred on a living person or in memory of a deceased person. All nominations must be presented in writing, motivating for the honour to be bestowed and include adequate motivation.

Please submit your nomination to the Office of the Mayor via the email address civic.honours@capetown.gov.za on or before 15 December 2022.

More information on the Civic Honours is available here: www.capetown.gov.za/CivicHonours

Source: City Of Cape Town

A number of the 242 arrests in the past week by the City’s Traffic Service, Law Enforcement and Metro Police Departments were courtesy of visible policing efforts. Officers also issued 63 993 fines, while the Public Emergency Communication Centre recorded more than 2 000 incidents over the past weekend, with worrying increases in inter-personal violence.

In the past week, Metro Police officers arrested 58 suspects and issued 3 357  fines.

On Sunday morning, 27 November 2022, Metro Police officers were conducting general patrols on the R300 off-ramp to Stock Road, when they heard two gunshots nearby. Officers responded in the direction of the shots, and spotted a suspect fleeing on foot. The 18-year-old was apprehended for the possession of a 9mm pistol with a live round in the chamber, and detained at Philippi SAPS.

Following the successful conclusion of the Festive Lights Switch On event in the CBD, Metro Police officers conducted crime prevention patrols to ensure the safe egress of the public from the CBD, when they received complaints about a suspect spotted showing off a firearm. Officers acted swiftly and arrested a 20-year-old male for being in possession of an imitation firearm at the Company’s Garden. 

Other successes that were the result of high visibility patrols and operations in the past week included:

Two suspects arrested by Metro Police officers for the possession of a stolen vehicle on Friday morning in Hanover Park when, during patrols, they noticed that the vehicle did not have a number plate

Four suspects arrested by the Traffic Highway Patrol Unit on Friday 25 November for the possession of a stolen vehicle in Athlone, courtesy of their Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology

Four arrests by Law Enforcement officers on Saturday 26 November related to metal theft during an operation with SAPS in Elsies River

Six arrests related to a hijacking following a high speed chase from Observatory to Bonteheuwel, involving Law Enforcement Auxiliary

‘That amounts to 18 arrests in just more than 48 hours, all thanks to officers being on the roads, conducting patrols, and being observant. And the list is even longer, but unfortunately, due to the volume of work done by our staff, we are not able to highlight each and every incident. We should also not forget the role that technology is playing, more and more, in our enforcement approach, as the arrests by the Highway Patrol Unit show.

‘However, some of our emergency statistics show that it was a bleak weekend for many, with very worrying increases in the number of assault cases, but also more than double the number of domestic violence incidents compared to the previous weekend. It is utterly shocking, considering that the observance of the annual 16 days of activism campaign for no violence against women and children has just gotten under way. It is an indictment on our society – we simply need to do better,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.

PUBLIC EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION CENTRE

The Centre logged 2 006 incidents between Friday 25 November and Sunday 27 November.

Category 25 – 27 Nov 18 – 20 Nov

Assault (physical and other) 178 133

Domestic Violence 52 23

Public Drinking 26 33

Motor vehicle/pedestrian accidents 82 70

TRAFFIC SERVICE

Traffic officers recorded 63 993 offences and arrested 76 suspects – 70 for driving under the influence of alcohol and six for reckless and negligent driving. Officers also impounded 124 public transport vehicles and executed 1048  warrants of arrest.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Law Enforcement officers conducted 495 operations, during which they made 108 arrests and issued 3658 fines. Law Enforcement Advancement Plan officers accounted for 87 of the arrests.

Source: City Of Cape Town

The City of Cape Town is suspending the MyCiTi Airport Service as from Thursday, 1 December 2022. Unfortunately, the demand for the service has not recovered since the lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions. As such, the City has decided to redeploy the fleet to higher-demand routes, among which the routes that are connecting Atlantis with Table View, Century City and the Cape Town central business district.

The City’s Urban Mobility Directorate is continuously monitoring the MyCiTi routes to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the service and efficient operations by allocating resources in accordance with passenger demand.

The 50,5% increase in the diesel price from 5 January to 2 November 2022, coupled with the low number of passengers making use of the Airport Service, have necessitated an intervention.

As such, it was decided to suspend the MyCiTi Airport Service as from Thursday, 1 December 2022. The buses operating on this route will be redeployed to the popular routes that connect Atlantis with Table View, Century City and the Cape Town CBD.

‘It is regrettable and unfortunate that we have to suspend the Airport Service, but the City being a responsible and prudent administration, is obliged to allocate resources where it is much needed and in high demand. The provision of additional buses to high demand areas will improve the day-to-day lives of regular commuters who have a great need for the MyCiTi service.

‘That said, we will investigate more cost effective and innovative solutions to resume the service in the future. In the meantime, we are focused on improving the efficiencies along those routes where we have commuters in high numbers on a daily basis,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Mobility, Councillor Rob Quintas.

All of the MyCiTi service timetables and route information is available at https://www.myciti.org.za, or on the MyCiTi app. The app is available free from iOS and Google Play stores; or phone the Transport Information Centre (TIC) on 0800 65 64 63. The TIC is available 24/7.

Source: City Of Cape Town