Axing work schemes will 'build up’ violence

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 1

Axing work schemes will 'build up’ violence

PA Wellington Gang violence will "certainly build up” now that the Government has axed the contract work scheme, under which some gang members have been employed, according to the national president of the Black Power gang, Mr Rei Harris.

He said he was “quite disappointed” the Government had axed the scheme. Ten of the gang’s 20 Wellington members are working on a six-month contract, cutting and clearing . scrub round Mount Albert Park on land owned by the Wellington City Council., For their work, the gang will be paid about $70,000 by the Labour Department. Most of this money will be paid as salaries based on the awarded hourly rate for the 10, while the rest will be spent on overheads such as machinery, oil, and office space and telephone rental. Mr Harris said he did not know what the men would do when the work ran out. He thought it unlikely the members could find other contract work in Wellington. Mr Harris said the men

might have to go back on the dole and it would be only a matter of time before once again gang mayhem would be such that “you would be very unlikely to walk down Vivian Street at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.” “With idle time there’s got to be an increase in trouble.” He believed that since the Government-sub-sidised work schemes had been introduced, gang problems in Wellington at least had taken on a “low profile.” In Auckland, the Mongrel Mob national secretary, Mr George Manfredos, has resigned. Mr Manfredos delivered his resignation to Radio New Zealand’s Auckland studios yesterday — going public before he had told gang members of his decision. The announcement comes after the release of police reports revealing

abuses of Governmentfunded gang work schemes. Mr Manfredos, aged 40, has been working with the Mongrel Mob to set up a $1 million work trust. His resignation said: “The Government had the opportunity to do something positive to significantly reduce crime and violence but they blew it. “The public of New Zealand deserve ' gangs when they are at their worst. I have resigned as the secretary and spokesman because the Mob has no longer any need for me. “The gangs are now back in the streets and that is where the New Zealand public wish them to be.” Mr Manfredos, was secretary ' of the gang’s national; trust, Nga Kuri Rohi Potae. Further reports, page 3