Gold medal in blundering as Lesufi’s amaPanyaza police Gauteng’s wallet, not its streets

Moegoe of the Year Winner: The figure whose sheer foolishness or blundering defined the year.

If wasting taxpayer money on a doomed crime-fighting unit were an Olympic sport, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi would win a gold medal for his Gauteng crime prevention wardens, also known as amaPanyaza, launched with great fanfare in early 2023.

Their mission was straightforward: fight crime, patrol neighbourhoods, report suspicious activity and restore a sense of safety. Thousands of mostly unemployed people were recruited with promises of jobs and purpose in the battle against Gauteng’s soaring crime rates.

But they had no proper training or legal authority to arrest, and little supervision, making them less saviours and more neighbourhood nuisances.

Allegations of civilian assaults, extortion rackets and the abuse of power had communities crying foul. They overstepped their mandate and in Soweto and Pretoria hotspots, and residents recounted harassment raids on shebeens and spaza shops where wardens allegedly pocketed goods under the pretence of “crime prevention”.

The programme’s operational chaos was made worse by a lack of legitimacy. In October, Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka declared the entire operation unlawful and irregular. Her report was clear: without proper legal backing, the wardens were roaming neighbourhoods without authority.

She exposed systemic failures in oversight, training and management, describing a programme that was not only ill-conceived, but dangerously out of control.

Read more: Calls for Lesufi’s removal after Gauteng Crime Prevention Wardens disbanded

Financially, amaPanyaza was an expensive white elephant. Opposition and watchdog estimates show the provincial government funnelled more than R1.5-billion into the programme for salaries, uniforms, vehicles, office setups and barely there training.

Rather than admitting failure and scrapping the programme, Lesufi and his team proposed re­training the wardens as traffic police.

Does swapping one failed operation for another mean lessons were learned, or is it an attempt to rewrite a costly disaster? For many, it feels like an attempt to cover up past mistakes.

Lesufi’s amaPanyaza initiative is a stark warning about the risks of political populism. It reminds policymakers and the public that flashy launches cannot replace careful planning, legal foundation and genuine community engagement. The R1.5-billion spent has yet to produce any meaningful reduction in crime, leaving Gauteng’s people vulnerable and disillusioned.

Lesufi and his failed project are a warning to voters. Don’t be fooled by populists who make promises they cannot keep, especially when they are at your expense. DM

Runners-up

Our moegoe runners-up spent 2025 perpetuating false narratives about immigrants and South Africa, respectively, in an attempt to radicalise people for their causes.

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R35.