In unpacking its plans for the upcoming year, the Sebenza Community Policing Forum (CPF) said stepping up its crime prevention campaigns is its underlying objective.
CPF chairperson Andrew Mosesi said one of their main goals is to finalise the Sector 2 Croydon sub-forum committee.
“We only had one general community meeting in that area for the whole year of 2017. It is a poor performance for the station CPF not to facilitate the existence of community monthly meetings as oversight,” Mosesi said.
“This has also affected the community’s relationship with the SAPS and other organised community formations, such as SAPS feedback to the community, SAPS client service centre service delivery, and the road closure community.”
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Mosesi said the CPF plans to step up its crime prevention campaigns, working hand in hand with the station commander, visible policing (Vispol) and sector managers.
“We will use different iconic holidays on the calendar to have crime prevention campaign programmes,” he said.
“We will also be doing re-vetting and vetting for all involved either in the CPF, youth or community patrol. This must be completed by end of March 2018. This will also allow us to re-register, register and remove patrollers on the provincial database as requested by province.”
Other plans include improving on the establishment of community patrol teams, a youth desk, street committees/captains and other sub-committees in all the CPF’s areas.
Mosesi said 2017 had seen both challenges and achievements for the Sebenza CPF.
He said the availability of executive members to execute their mandate has been a challenge.
“We will be encouraging other members of the executive to participate more in order to assist the station CPF with the oversight role mandated to the executive.”
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The business forum had also got off to a very slow start, if a start at all.
“This is a challenge because it becomes difficult for the station to share information with business. We also learned that some businesses choose not to report some crimes, which is an incorrect reflection on SAPS willingness to serve.”
According to Mosesi, Kempton Park West became a crime hot-spot in 2017 because the CPF didn’t have community involvement from this area.
“Poor establishment of community patrol teams in different areas was also a big challenge for us. We had an increase in community complaints on station service delivery and some members’ attitudes towards assisting the community.”
Despite the challenges they faced in 2017, the Sebenza CPF managed to revive the Sector 1 Cresslawn sub-forum committee and improve community involvement with patrols.
“Late in the year, with the assistance of the community, we managed start community involvement in Sector 1 Kempton Park West CPF sub-forum. We managed to track community complaints either sent directly to the station CPF executive chairperson, social media or directly to the station commander. The station commander and the Vispol head do attend to the complaints,” Mosesi added.
The Sector 4 Modderfontein sub-committee was the only consistent sector with regards to delivery of the oversight mandate.
“The sector held their sector meetings and submitted their oversight reports (minutes) monthly without fail. The security company in the area, iMvula, and the CPF always brought matters of service delivery to the attention of the CPF executive chairperson and the station commander. We congratulate the team headed by Mr Kamohelo Sello for iMvula and Danton Ward and Stefan Rheeder for CPF and encourage them to keep up the good work.”
Mosesi added that the CPF’s broader forum managed to sit monthly as mandated and resolve community policing issues.
“This also is attributed to the support by our councillors, Simon Lapping, Tracey Batler and Heather Hart. JMPD has also been consistent in these meetings, and not only in attending meetings but also attending to issues raised around the Modderfontein area. The involvement of EMPD Edleen Circle, though not consistent, is also appreciated.
“EMPD Edenvale slowly started getting on board towards the end of the year and this is appreciated. The assistance or SAPS partnership with other security companies, such as Mamba and Hwibidu, is a great achievement towards reducing crime in our station precinct. We congratulate the station – our crime prevention unit continues doing well in recovering stolen goods, hijacked trucks, unlicensed firearms and drugs.”
Mosesi wished the community and everyone a prosperous New Year.
