Community won’t let miscommunication stop their good work

What was supposed to be a day for community members to meet-and-greet with Community Policing Forum (CPF) and Douglasdale police, became a day of free vaccination for dogs in the community on open municipal land in Chartwell.

This was thanks to Chartwell Country Estate and Conservancy who joined the police’s meet-and-greet. “We tagged along to this meet-and-greet as we expected the police and CPF to be here, obviously something came up,” the conservancy’s Ben Jowitt said.

When asked why they weren’t at the meet-and-greet, interim chairperson of the Community Policing Forum Neil Hays, explained that they were told to go to Msawawa informal settlement instead of the scheduled meet-and-greet, due to a last-minute agreement with the cluster commander. “We sincerely apologise to Chartwell residents and we as the CPF are meeting on Tuesday [29 May] and will set up another date to meet with the residents.”

Jowitt explained that they were there as part of their community drive where they encourage everyone to come together. They used this opportunity to vaccinate dogs in the community as there had been a rabies outbreak in the conservancy area. He highlighted that the initiative to get dogs chipped and to receive booster shots ended up as a success, judging from the community members’ turn out.

When asked what they have been up to lately, Jowitt said, “We are also looking at a formal road closure application for Chartwell because of the security matter we are facing as a community.”

He mentioned that they were also conducting Chartwell Neighbourhood Watch which has been doing a tremendous job in the area. “We have also been busy with access control and screening certain roads on a limited basis, as we allow pedestrian and vehicle access in a limited manner.

“We are basically trying to protect the conservancy as it plays an important role in the north of Johannesburg and part of the drive is to make sure that this conservancy is around for future generations.”

He stated that they were busy with a proposal to convert the open municipal land into a park which will become a formalised eco-park for Chartwell and surrounding communities. “We hope that with the park we will be able to teach people about conservancy and how to protect the environment.”

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Also check out:

https://www.citizen.co.za/fourways-review/281810/dont-miss-douglasdale-cpfs-sector-meet-greet-meetings/

https://www.citizen.co.za/fourways-review/282001/do-you-want-to-be-a-part-of-the-cpf/