By Staff Reporter
news@alexreporter.co.za
The Police Ministry has welcomed operational plans put in place by the South African Police Service in the Mpumalanga province, in preparation for the influx of visitors to the province for the festive season.
The province, known for its many holiday sites and tourist attractions receives hundreds of thousands of visitors during the holiday season.
The provincial police management briefed the Police Ministry and national police service top management on its safer festive season safety plans that started in October and will run until the end of January 2022.
The second day of the annual _Safer Festive Season Inspection Tour_ saw police Minister General Bheki Cele and his deputy, Cassel Mathale, alongside National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, General Khehla Sitole, and his management team, monitor police operations activated for the festive period.
Police in Mpumalanga has amongst other interventions, strengthened its working relations with communities and has roped in members of the public to support crime fighting through the community policing structures and the SAPS _Community in Blue_ initiative.
Cele says it is through such partnerships that the country can turn the tide against crimes such as gender-based violence (GBV).
“We simply can’t afford to work in silos, not only during this period of festivities but beyond. I am very sure that the partnership that the SAPS in this province has with communities and other law enforcement agencies will reduce crime during this time.
“The partnership with law enforcement agencies and other government departments aims to track and combat cross-border crimes and the crossing of illicit goods through the Mpumalanga border with Mozambique.
“The monitoring of undocumented persons will also be heightened through the work of multi-department roadblocks,” concluded Cele.
While SAPS officers in Mpumalanga will ensure a safer festive season through crime prevention and crime combatting operations while maintaining high visibility at places of leisure and areas where people are likely to converge in numbers, they will focus on dealing with the most prevalent crimes as well as any new, or opportunistic crimes.
The _Safer Festive season Inspection Tour_heads to the Gauteng province on the the 16th of December 2021.
