Members of Gun Free South Africa along with the Youth Crime Prevention Desk at the Ivory Park Police Station worked to raise awareness about the danger of guns in Kaalfontein on 8 April.
The initiative themed Iguniflopo (guns are a problem) and Kuzobasafe (be safe) saw members of both organisations do door-to-door campaigning, alerting the community about crimes that were on the rise due to guns.
Dopper Ramapulana, Gauteng local facilitator for Gun Free SA (GFSA) said, based on reports coming in at the Ivory Park Police Station, there are a number of crimes increasing including house robberies, carjacking, rape and murder. He said this is why it is it was important for them and the Youth Crime Prevention Desk (YCPD) of Ivory Park Police Station to go out to the affected communities to give them recommendations on how they can try and prevent or avoid these crimes.
“One of our key messages as Gun Free SA was to inform residents about how they can report to have a gun removed from an abusive gun owner. The door-to-door campaign is one of the many campaigns we plan to have with the YCPD of Ivory Park Police Station to try and educate the community about the importance of reporting illegal guns so that the flow of illegal guns in the community can go down,” Ramapulana said.
“We also plan to raise awareness on the importance of reporting each and every criminal activity so that the police can allocate more resources to affected areas.”
Ivory Park Youth Crime Prevention Desk spokesperson, Dineo Tselapedi added that the community of Ivory Park is intensely affected by crime. “Statistics have listed our station as number 24 on the top 30 hotspots. GFSA approached us to find out about all that we do to help decrease crime in the community,” Tselapedi explained.
“We then decided to join forces with them to raise awareness on the impact of guns on the community or bring about a gun-free zone to Ivory Park since most of our high-profile cases are committed with guns involved,” Tselapedi concluded.
Details: Gun Free SA media liaison Sara Chitambo 071 876 1135; Ivory Park Youth Crime Prevention Desk spokesperson, Dineo Tselapedi 060 428 8891.
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