Region F security beefed up with special unit
"People need to respect the laws and know what they can and cannot do. If you break the law there will be consequences.”
A special unit has been deployed to region F, which covers ward 66, to address complaints which include crime in general, noise pollution and bylaw infringements.
The ward 66 councillor, Clr Carlos Da Rocha, is pleased with the beefing up of security in region F.
“This comes after a number of complaints from the residents about safety in parks, noise pollution especially on weekends and a number of illegal actives in the area.
“We need more police visibility and bylaw enforcement,” said Clr Da Rocha.
The ward councillor recently had a meeting with senior officers from the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) regarding the concerns.
“The JMPD promised to improve its visibility, to monitor noise pollution hot-spots and crime in general. This meeting only came about after I went to the deputy director’s office to complain about the absence of my JMPD officers.
“My complaint came about because the JMPD turnaround time is ridicules. I had to continuously lodge the same complaint over and over again before they did something. I am complaining about the same thing over and over and years later, the same problems still exist,” said Clr Da Rocha.
He said the agreement with the JMPD is that the deployed special unit will deal with the problems individually, because some of them need time to be dealt with.
“The unit will focus on monitoring the situation in region F. People need to respect the laws and know what they can and cannot do. If you break the law there will be consequences,” said Clr Da Rocha.
He said residents feel unsafe in their own neighbourhoods because of the level of crime.
“Unless I take a stand as their councillor and address these problems, the officers don’t see to it by themselves to deal with the problems they come across. I can only hope that when the special unit is called in to address complaints, they will respond and maintain the peace and not just fade away,” said Clr Da Rocha.
