KZN government recalls community crime-fighting vehicles amidst "personal errands" claim

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli has defended his government's decision to recall vehicles that were provided to assist community safety structures in crime-fighting initiatives.

Ntuli defended the decision, saying it was taken after an assessment which revealed that some of the vehicles were abused and being used for personal errands rather than to assist in crime-fighting. Ntuli raised the issue of maintenance and fuel, which he said was becoming a problem.

He said his government was still committed to crime-fighting and creating a safe environment for all the people in the province and the government was in the process of donating some of the vehicles to safety structures and to police to beef up their campaign against gender-based violence.

“The government realised that there were challenges. One of them was that the vehicles were used for personal trips rather than fighting crime. I came across a vehicle filled with people. The other issue was maintenance and fueling of these cars so we felt it better to give it to the police since they have a budget for maintenance and fuel,” said Ntuli.

Ntuli recently came under fire from the community safety structures at a crime imbizo in Umlazi where leaders of the structures raised the issue of the removal of the vehicles, accusing him of not taking their crime fighting structures seriously.  

Musa Dlamini, the chairperson of all community structures of Umlazi said their crime-fighting spirit was dampened by the government’s decision which had significantly affected the safety structures who were relying on the vehicles to patrol areas.

“The decision came at a time when our effort was beginning to yield positive results. There was a time where an ambulance was hijacked in Umlazi but with our intelligence network, we managed to recover the ambulance within hours,” said Dlamini.

Andile Jali who is a chairperson of the Inanda Neighborhood Watch said Ntuli’s decision did not demotivate his crime fighters but compromised their safety and that of the community they are serving.

“We were disappointed by the premier’s decision. These vehicles assisted us in responding to calls for help from community members,” said Jali.

In 2023, the then Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube handed over 95 vehicles to community safety structures to assist in crime fighting.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za