The first 2023 meeting of the Sector 1 CPF welcomed residents, police officials from various entities and security companies to discuss what has been affecting their area with regards to safety.
Member of the CPF Sector 1, Reuben Knoetze, curated the discussion alongside chairperson, Ragani Govender on February 8.
Before the official start of the online meeting, Govender highlighted the campaigns and important mentions which occurred late last year.
“We had a few GBV awareness campaigns that happened last year at Woodmead Retail Park, Chilli Lane Shopping Centre and Bryanston Shopping Centre. It was not as successful as we’d hoped because of the advertising, but despite that, we had good engagement with a few residents and shoppers,” said Govender. “We realised that we need to work harder on helping our community members because there are a lot of people who want to report crimes, but they are afraid. Our past CPF members will be stationed at the Sandton Police Station to voice out the concerns of those in need soon.”
The absence of Sandton police officer Sergeant Trevor Rama due to load-shedding did not slow down the matter of mentioning the various crimes which affected the sector.
Knoetze was given the past and current crime statistics of the areas in the sector by the sergeant moments before his power outage. Crimes ranging from housebreaking and robberies to theft out of motor vehicles had increased in both Edenburg and Sunninghill.
During the meeting, representatives of various security companies addressed some of the issues they faced in their area.
Chief executive officer of Ghost Squad Tactical, Francois Marias stated that there has been a rise of domestic workers and gardeners getting robbed after work. He urged the community to pay their domestic workers and gardeners through bank methods instead of cash to reduce the crime trend.
Also, in attendance was officer Neo Mooketsa of the JMPD Region E who had connectivity issues.
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