Grade 12 Post matric
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5.4 Presentation and Discussion of findings
This section is dedicated to the presentation and discussion of the findings emanating from the methodological procedures relating to interviews as part of data collection and subsequent data analysis process as explained in following sections. Figure 5.2 depicts the results of analysis (output from Atlas.ti) based on themes and sub-themes.
Table 5.4 illustrates each research objective with its associated coded themes and sub-themes. From the three research objectives, five main themes and subsequently nine sub-themes emerged during the analysis phase. These themes and sub-themes were developed from the research participants’ transcripts, which were analysed through the Atlas.ti data analysis software (Smit, 2002). This process guided analysis of data collected and therefore formed basis of the interpretation and discussion of the findings as presented in the next subsection.
5.4.1 Research objective One #1: To assess the TMPD’s officers’ role in the protection of municipal assets of the CTMM
The first research objective of the study was aimed at examining TMPD’s officers’ role in protecting the assets of the municipality. The associated research question for this research objective was phrased as follows: “What is the role of TMPD in the protection of municipal assets of the CTMM?” The intention of this research was to understand from the officers’ perspective their role in the asset protection function and if there is congruency in their responses. The existence of the varied responses suggest that there is no shared understanding in terms of their legislative mandate. The two supplementary research questions were thus formulated as follows:
What is the main mandate of TMPD?
How is the working relationship with other organs of state when it comes to asset protection?
Based on these two research questions, the sub-themes that were probed include the one on the legislative framework governing the work of the municipal police officers as well as their mandate as enshrined in the framework.
5.4.1.1 The legislative framework
Looking at the legislative framework in South Africa for a proper understanding of the responsibilities and the specific mandate of metro police, the legislative framework was scrutinised in relation to the research participants’ responses. Since the dawn of
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the democracy, there has been several legislative and structural overhauls on the law enforcement functions. This development saw more involvement of local and provincial governments in terms of their law enforcement units. Likewise, the road traffic safety responsibility sectors or units were restructured and strengthened both at the local and provincial government levels. These legislative developments according to Taumang et al., (2022) include:
the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996);
the South African Police Service Act (68 of 1995);
the SAPS Amendment Act (83 of 1998);
the National Road Traffic Act (93 of 1996).
Section 206 of the Constitution enshrines the existence of municipal police officers as it makes provision for their establishment, the powers accorded to them, and how they function and are controlled. Their responsibilities include enforcing the municipal by- laws, traffic control, and crime prevention. Naidoo (2020:12) maintains this point as the author enlists three core functions of metro police officers, namely:
(1) traffic policing,
(2) policing municipal by-laws and regulations, and (3) prevention of crime.
There is congruency in these roles considering that they are all established under the SAPS Act of 1995, which was amended by Act 83 of 1998. The founding legislative framework is the Constitution, and this is acknowledged by numbers of authors (e.g., Taumang, et al., 2022; Naidoo, 2020; Madihlaba 2018; 2021). The establishing statements of the municipal police officers from the four biggest metropolitan municipalities in the country (TMPD, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Department [EMPD], Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department [JMPD] and Cape Town Metro police Department [CMPD]) were also scrutinised, and from that exercise questions about legislative mandate were asked.
From these responses, it was clear that the understanding of their legislative mandate was varying. What can be drawn from these responses is that there is no shared understanding in terms of the primary legislative mandate of the TMPD officers. The lack of shared understanding is also observed by Rauch, Shaw, and Louw (2001) who found that due to both municipal police services and the SAPS having legislative
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Figure 5.2: Conceptual and relational analysis: An excerpt from the Atlas.ti
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mandates of preventing crime. This, as the authors observe leads to obstacles in coordination efforts owing to these agencies operating in various geographical jurisdictions. Interestingly, one of the research participants, for example, enlisted the responsibilities, at least according to him, by order of their priorities, which proves lack of shared understanding as prescribed by the legislative framework.
Research participant #2 stated as follows: “…the number 1 mandate would be Road Policing, that is our number 1. And then others are like crime prevention that is number two is Policing and then we have by-laws”.
With these responses in mind, it is important that there are workshops organised in the form of refresher courses or interventions that takes municipal police officers through their mandate, strategies, and other operational functions as prescribed by the relevant legislation. This is also an awareness exercise for them to know within which framework(s) they need to execute their jobs to avoid functioning outside of their legislative mandate.
5.4.1.2 The legislative mandate of the TMPD
The first supplementary research question quest to determine the legislative mandate of the TMPD in terms of the enabling act. From this mandate, the idea was to understand where asset protection fits in. Based on this question, the responses from the participant varied to some effect, and this is illustrated in Figure 5.4.
Figure 5.2: The legislative mandate of the TMPD officers
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1
3 3
1 1
Law enforcement (incl by-laws)
General Policing
Crime prevention
Safety and protection of citizens in the
City
Land invasion Crowd management