The City of Johannesburg has announced the launch of "Operation Buya Mthetho" on Monday to "enforce by-laws and to bring back the rule of law".

In a statement the City said the operation will be led by the new municipal chief of police, David Tembe, supported by senior officials from the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department and by those from across all our departments.

It’s main focus will be to ensure city by-law are adhered to by all within the City and that the rule of law becomes the order of the day.

"The City will launch with Operation Buya Mthetho, a new mutli-departmental operation aimed at enforcing by-laws and to bring back the rule of law to the City of Johannesburg," said the statement.

"This operation will be conducted on a daily basis, on a ward based 'raid' initiative. Operation Buya Mthetho will be a joint operation between all key City departments and entities such as Disaster Management, Environmental Health, Social Development, Infrastructure Services, the City’s legal department, and Development Planning to name but a few."

City Mayor Herman Mashaba appealed to Johannesburg residents to cooperate with authorities as the embark on the clean up.

"Operation Buya Mthetho aims to affirm the City’s commitments in ensuring that we stop the rot in our city and make it a prosperous and inclusive place for our people to live, work and play. I hope that the residents of Johannesburg will support our initiative and report crime and criminals to our authorities," said Mashaba.