With the unrest and chaos of looting that was happening last week, Primrose CPF, community members and security companies took a stand and protected businesses in the area.
“We received information that there was a possibility of looters and protesters targeting businesses in our area on Tuesday night,” said Tracy Enslin, CPF chairperson.
“We immediately put this out to our community members via our CPF street groups throughout Primrose. The residents of Primrose refused to sit back and allow our town to be ruined by thugs only wanting to steal and destroy.”
She said after seeing the damage experienced by other areas, the community and Primrose SAPS compiled a plan where residents could assist and would not be put in harm’s way.
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“We made sure we adhered to social distancing and all residents wore masks. All three sectors of Primrose sent out a message to our community, explaining where we needed them to stand to be our eyes and ears.
“We placed all community members in large groups around Primrose from 18.00,” explained Enslin.
“We protected the borders around Primrose by showing huge visibility. Our CPF patrollers and security companies monitored the hot spots with SAPS and EMPD and some patrollers drove around throughout Primrose, watching borders. The number of residents that came out was overwhelming.
“The CPF and residents kept in constant communication with each other throughout the night,” said Enslin.
She said the visibility helped ensure that businesses in the community were not looted.
“We do believe that because of a huge amount of visibility throughout Primrose we managed to deter the protesters and looters from doing anything criminal in our area
“The Primrose community is a community that stands united against all crime,” said Enslin.
She said they were thankful to all the community members who heeded the call of protecting the community.
“Our station commander, Col Maswanyangi, keeps our CPF executive up to date at all times. We are so grateful to one another and we will continue to protect our community as long we are needed,” said Enslin.
Businesses and community members in the area have expressed their heartfelt appreciation to the community members who took a stand to protect them.
The organisations that were part of the patrols were SAPS, EMPD, CPF patrollers, Primrose community, Spider Tactical Response, CPG, FRS, Mamba, Circinus, Afriforum and PRAC Neighbourhood Watch.
Contact the newsroom by emailing: Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za