Patrollers to ensure clean fun and safety at City Parks this festive season

14 December 2017

 

Officers from the SAPS and the JMPD, aided by park patrollers in colourful bibs are highly visible at flagship parks run by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ) this festive season.
 

The officers, some on horseback, are out in full force to ensure the safety, good behavior of revelers in parks and to keep criminals at bay.

The patrollers, who are paid a stipend for their efforts, are mostly local youngsters familiar with the surroundings and eager to assist. They are keeping an eye on kids playing on swings, slides, merry go rounds and jungle gyms. The parks over the festive season are freely accessible and should be top of mind for families and children wanting to play outside. The aim is to have good clean fun with family and friends without being a nuisance to other users of the park. 

If you contravene the bylaws and break the rules, expect to be searched, have your liquor confiscated, or even be arrested if you are disorderly.

At Thokoza Park in the south of Johannesburg, the JCPZ has deployed 30 patrollers who are working with officers from the Moroka Police Station and the JMPD to enforce by-laws in the park. This heightened visibility of the police and patrollers will act as a deterrent and will be effective until February, says Kgantshe Mofokeng, JCPZ’s Stakeholder Relations Officer for Region D. “It is part of JPCZ’s Park Safety Programme which seeks to educate users and enforce compliance of bylaws in our parks.”

The Ten Commandments of acceptable park behavior at parks of the City

1. Don’t take alcohol or drink liquor
2. Don’t play loud music
3. Don’t peddle or take drugs
4. Don’t make fires in non-designated spaces 
5. Don’t dispose of charcoal on the lawn or against a tree; 
6. Don’t litter
7. Don’t break bottles
8. Don’t stay after 6pm
9. Don’t fight
10. Don’t leave your dog’s droppings
Obey all park safety bylaws and report transgressions to the Joburg Emergency Call Centre on 011 375-5911