After being in the crime-combating field for nearly 25 years, Steven Johnson has stepped down as the chairperson of the Midrand CPF.
His role was taken over by Tracy Basson, former deputy chairperson. Johnson started being involved with blockwatch now known as Neighbourhood Watch, Sector Crime Forum and eventually became a CPF chairperson.
Sharing his thoughts on the journey that has been, Johnson said he will not be lost to the CPF although stepping down was a bittersweet moment for him.
Currently, Johnson is the treasurer of the sub-district Community Police Forum. “I have mixed feelings – happy and yet sad because I have been here for two terms. And two terms mean 10 years because each term is a period of five years. One of the good memories was the task team that we had established and at one stage, Midrand had no drug dealers.”
He said, unfortunately, the task team slowly faded away when new structures were introduced.
Johnson also congratulated Basson who was elected for the hot seat. “Well, I had mentored her as the deputy chairperson. So she is very capable and she has the respect from the sectors. Tracy is very innovative and revolutionary in terms of coming up with crime-combating strategies in the CPF.”
Johnson said for the last four or five months, he took a step back and allowed Basson to have a real feeling of being the chairperson.
He concluded that Midrand residents need to work with all authorities, including the CPF and Sector Crime Forum in a bid to fight crime.
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