The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is demanding full transparency from the provincial government regarding the planned retraining of the controversial Crime Prevention Wardens, following an announcement by Premier Panyaza Lesufi.
The move comes after the Public Protector found that the wardens, colloquially known as Amapanyaza, were initially deployed illegally. On Wednesday, Premier Lesufi announced a new plan for the wardens to undergo a phased training program to be designated the same legal standing as the Gauteng Traffic Police.
DA Gauteng Leader Solly Msimanga stated that this sudden pivot confirms the party’s long-held warnings that the Crime Prevention Wardens programme was poorly planned and critically underfunded from its inception.
“The Premier’s announcement raises more questions than it answers,” Msimanga said. “We are demanding immediate clarity on two critical issues: the accreditation of this new training program and the source of the funding required to execute it. The public deserves to know how a program deemed illegal is now being transitioned into another law enforcement capacity, and at what cost.”
The Public Protector’s finding of illegal deployment has cast a long shadow over the future of the wardens. Premier Lesufi’s new initiative appears to be an effort to legitimize the unit by bringing it under the established umbrella of traffic police authority.
However, the DA contends that this does not address the fundamental flaws of the original project. Key concerns remain about the standard of the planned training, whether it will meet national accreditation requirements, and which provincial department’s budget will be adjusted to cover the significant costs of retraining hundreds of wardens.
As of now, the Premier’s office has not released detailed information on the funding model or the specific accreditation pathways for the training program. The DA has vowed to submit formal questions to the provincial legislature to compel a full disclosure of the plans.
