Practice Guide

This practice guide is intended for all stakeholders working for safer South African cities. It is for government officials, politicians and community members.

It deals with the questions:

• What are the effective ways of supporting the shared work of municipal safety functions, planning and implementation?
• How can systems across municipalities better respond to the safety crises in our cities?
• How can politicians and officials work together better for safer cities with a shared sense of purpose and common values?
• What skills do officials and politicians require in order to optimise their shared work of urban safety?
• And what institutional structures best facilitate urban safety interventions?

This practice guide draws on engagements with three of South Africa’s metros: the City of Tshwane, the City of Ekurhuleni and the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. In-depth interviews and a series of workshops focused on how to optimise urban safety in municipalities through institutionalisation and building the relationships between the political and administrative arms of government. The best practice and lessons harvested in these interactions, as well as learnings from available material on urban safety processes in municipalities, are incorporated in this guide.

Abstract based directly on source.