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Gauteng residents wake up daily fearing for their safety, while businesses suffer as rising crime across the province drives away customers and increases security costs. This situation persists despite Premier Panyaza Lesufi spending more than R459 million over the past four years on the training, travel, accommodation and deployment of the controversial Gauteng Traffic Wardens known as the Amapanyaza.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on Premier Lesufi to implement stronger management, clear operational mandates and measurable performance targets for the Gauteng Crime Wardens. This will help determine whether the programme's public safety objectives are being met and confirm if residents are getting real value for the millions of rand spent to fund it.

In a written response to questions submitted by the DA in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL), Premier Lesufi confirms that the Gauteng Provincial Government spent R66.524 million in 2022/23, R224.022 million in 2023/24, R76.631 million in 2024/25 and R91.931 million in 2025/26, pushing total expenditure on the training programme to more than R459 million. He further reveals that 5900 out of 8752 traffic wardens were enrolled for the controversial peace officer training programme.

Compared with alternative law enforcement capacity-building models, the cost raises important questions about value for money. For example, it costs an average of about R30 000 to train a South African Police Service (SAPS) reservist, who can also make a meaningful contribution to crime prevention and public safety operations.

This raises a critical question: has Gauteng become safer after spending more than R459 million and deploying 8,752 wardens across the province? Regrettably, the answer appears to be no, as the latest crime statistics continue to paint a grim picture of persistent violent and organised crime in Gauteng. The Fourth Quarterly Crime Statistics for the 2025/2026 financial year show that Gauteng recorded an average of 27 kidnappings per day.

It also raises questions about whether the deployment of these wardens, now granted peace officer status, is guided by crime intelligence and available crime statistics to ensure they are deployed to the areas hardest hit by crime, where their presence is most needed.

Also concerning is the unexplained sharp increase in spending from R66.5 million in the 2022/23 financial year to R224.022 million in 2023/24, which is nearly 70%. The DA will table further questions for Premier Lesufi to ascertain the cause of this dramatic spike in spending. Gauteng residents deserve to know whether their money is being spent on impactful public safety programmes that genuinely fight crime, rather than costly political gimmicks.

The DA is the only party with a proven track record of successfully deploying peace officers to support law enforcement agencies. A DA-led Gauteng Provincial Government would urgently review the traffic warden programme to assess its costs, efficiency and impact and identify where it needs strengthening to ensure that every rand spent on it delivers real improvements in community safety.

Issued by Michael Sun MPL - DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Community Safety