Pretoria - Gauteng's Community Safety MEC Khabisi Mosunkutu has set aside the largest portion of his department's budget for road safety but also prioritised initiatives aimed at women and youth.
Tabling the department's budget in the Gauteng Legislature on Tuesday, Mosunkutu announced that R212.8-million had been allocated for traffic management.
Mosunkutu said his department was committed to guaranteeing the safety of Gauteng residents by ensuring all vehicles on the province's roads were roadworthy.
"To promote a safe and pleasant experience on Gauteng roads the Gauteng Traffic Police will, amongst other activities, work to reduce road fatalities by 10 percent," the MEC said.
This will be done through traffic law enforcement, road safety management and road safety education.
The department will embark on 'zero tolerance' operations targeting both public and private transport.
"Excessive speeding, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol and reckless and negligent driving will receive priority attention in this regard," Mosunkutu said.
Projects aimed at the youth, victim empowerment and women, will receive a R18.4-million injection.
Among these initiatives are social crime prevention interventions aimed at young people.
Mosunkutu said that in the past year the department's Provincial Abuse Programme enlisted 18 414 pupils, 891 teachers and 576 youth desk members.
"During 2010/11 the department will establish 27 news Youth Desks and provide support to the existing 107. Social crime prevention training will also be provided to 450 Youth Desk volunteers," the MEC added.
Through its victim empowerment initiatives, the department wants to provide accommodation for at least 350 victims at Ikhaya Lethemba - a shelter that also offers support services to victims of domestic abuse.
"Part of our 2010/11 plan to help women victims of domestic and sexual abuse entails setting up 50 green door structures. The aim of these structures is to motivate communities to establish safe locations for victims of domestic and sexual violence," Mosunkutu said.
To ensure that access to victim support services is easily available, the department will establish three regional victim offices during this financial year.
Thirty-six new Community Police Forums (CPFs) will also be established in the province, while the existing 134 will be sustained and regular public meeting would be held with them.
An amount of R31.7-million was set aside for this.
CPFs were the backbone of crime fighting in the country and would be at the forefront during this financial year, Mosunkutu said.
The department is expected to spend R13-million on communications.
This will include 48 outreach programmes to enhance communication and interaction with communities.
The department wants to raise awareness levels and mobilise communities to participate in anti-crime activities, the MEC added.
Mosunkutu added that the department would tackle fraud and corruption in law enforcement agencies in the province and had set aside R2.9-million for that purpose.
The department has also budgeted R2.2-million for learnerships and internships, R700 00 for bursaries and R1.1-million for training interventions.
