THE high incidence of crime in the Berea has prompted ward councillors in Berea and Morningside, as well as the Berea CPF, to call on residents to sign a petition which will be forwarded to the National Government and the Minister of Police appealing them to intervene.
Councillors Martin Meyer and Chris Pappas, together with CPF chair, Nicky Burke, have put together a petition calling on the Minister and leadership of SAPS to upgrade the Berea Police Station to a Brigadier Station, to enable it to sufficiently deal with the crime in the area, to relocate the station to a more appropriate and accessible site, and to sufficiently resource the station.
“The high incidents of crime in the area and the urgent improvements to the station to better serve the community have been reported to province over the past 10 years, but there has been no action. We have had members of parliament visit the station and engage with the leadership of SAPS, but nothing has been done,” said Burke.
Meyer said it had reached a point where the issues had all been put together as a petition, which he hoped would spark some change.
“We need more resources at the station, and we need a new station. We have asked for the station to be upgraded to a Brigadier Station, like Durban Central, as there will be more senior leadership, and hence more resources will be made available and there will be more personnel,” he said.
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“With the density of Berea, and the large number of residents, this is justified. However, we also need the people living in ward 27 and 31 to assist. We need to highlight crime in the area, even petty crime,” said Pappas.
Burke said the stats were skewed by people not reporting crime. Visitors to the area also have a responsibility to report crime.
“The idea is to highlight the situation, and every other approach has not worked. We have tried everything to draw attention to the issues affecting the station and nothing has happened. We understand there is red tape, but the question is at what stage does red tape hinder service delivery in an area,” she said.
Pappas said since the petition had been posted on social media, there had been more than 260 responses from residents.
“So far we have shared it on our Facebook pages and WhatsApp groups. We encourage as many people as possible to sign it and share the link. We want around 1 000 responses,” he said.
Residents are encouraged to sign the petition at https://bit.ly/SupportBereaSAPS.
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