Mayor Mashaba blames Jo’burg’s inner city crime on ‘undocumented people’

Following a spate of vicious muggings in Johannesburg’s inner-city, Mayor Herman Mashaba has singled out undocumented foreigners and a bureaucratic judicial system as the main causes for the prevailing scourge of ‘petty’ crime.

In an interview with 702 Talk Radio, Mashaba sympathised with residents who had been affected by crime in Jo’burg’s central business district (CBD).

Johannesburg mugging caught on camera sparks outrage

The mayor had to face some tough questions regarding the lack of visible policing within the CBD – an outcry which has intensified following amateur video footage captured the vicious mugging of a man in Small Street Mall.

The mall, which is right outside the South Gauteng High Court, was busy at the time. Onlookers did not intervene for fear of their own safety. No police officers were present in an area that is known for being a mugging hotspot.

Responding to questions posed by talk show host, Azania Mosaka, Mashaba bemoaned the fact that undocumented foreigners were able to slip through the cracks and avoid capture due to them not being on the record.

Jo’burg’s ‘undocumented people’

Mashaba claims that the City has employed technological advancements in the fight against crime, including improved investigative techniques and progressive CCTV monitoring systems. Speaking on the various issues hampering the City’s crime-fighting efforts, Mashaba said:

“It makes it really difficult to control crime because today with crime, we don’t deal with crime by beating up people, you need technology, you need the latest methods in ensuring that you can track down those criminal elements.

But now when you sit in a city with so many undocumented people, it makes it difficult but now another huge challenge that we are facing is that unfortunately, our National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been failing us as a country and the city of Johannesburg.”

The mayor also maintained his staunch commitment to fighting inner city crime, by deploying an additional 15 000 law enforcement officers to the Johannesburg Metro Police Department. On boosting the ranks of local law enforcement agencies, the mayor said:

“We are committed to those, that is why with my first budget I passed upon taking over the office in February 2017, the biggest investment I made was on capacitating JMPD with additional 15 000 police officers.”

Mashaba went on to praise the Constitutional Court’s decision on Shaun Abrahams, adding that an incompetent judicial system has allowed crime to breed in Johannesburg, saying:

“JMPD can arrest someone, [but] the City of Johannesburg does not have the prosecutorial responsibility or competency… we don’t have our own prisons. So we rely on national constituency to assist us in ensuring there are consequences.”

However, despite citing crime-fighting statistics and promising a better-trained police force, the mayor was unable to provide clear reasons why visible policing in the City of Johannesburg was failing to prevent street crime.