A Community Policing Forum (CPF) is key in the fight against crime in communities across South Africa, standing in the gap and partnering with South African Police Service (Saps) and other stakeholders.
Often times residents want to have their pulse on the operations of CPFs and want to feel that they can rely on police and CPFs.
On 30 August, Douglasdale CPF took to Facebook to announce the interim executive committee.
This post prompted a concerned resident, who did not want to be named, to raise a series of questions and concerns.
Points raised by the concerned community member were, among other things: ‘…rampant crime in the community, reasons as to why the executive committee was allegedly disbanded, what vetting measures are undertaken, that there is no communication participation, and a need for an effective, transparent and open community policing forum’.
READ: Douglasdale CPF reminds residents of smash-and-grab threat
In response to comments on Facebook, the Douglasdale CPF responded seeking to, according to the post, ‘correct some misunderstandings and speculation’.
The statement from the CPF explained that the previous forum’s executive committee was dissolved due to ‘… not having a quorum, one member relocated, one is dealing with family illness and two co-option periods came to an end … an interim executive committee was appointed, and the Douglasdale CPF interim committee and sector committees are fully functional’.
The Douglasdale CPF chairperson, Jean Berdou, emphasised to Fourways Review that the community can trust the CPF as the forum is still strong and focused on serving the community. Further, Berdou said a few negative comments were not a reflection of what many residents think of the CPF that has served them many times.
He added, “People tend to use an issue to drive a different agenda all the time. I know people who work for the CPF well, they do great work and our community patrollers work hard and patrol even at night, putting their lives on the line.”
Berdou also thanked the new Douglasdale Saps community patrollers, local residents who have been trained and vetted, and will join the fight against crime in the Douglasdale precinct.
In August this year a new interim executive committee was elected:
- Chairperson: Jean Berdou
- Deputy chair: Neil Hays
- Secretary: Sandra Mabuto
- Deputy secretary: Natasha Lacenderis
- Treasurer: Margaret van Zweeten
- Public relations: Donne Oosthuizen and Desiree Ascor
- Special community relations: Morgan Kapario
- Other members who will also fill various roles are: Freda Boiles, Carol Badenhorst, Josef Botes, Carl Hovart, Loulen Lensing and Madeleine Bruckmann.
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