Westdene-Sophiatown students forum to be established
JOBURG – The Brixton Police Station and the Westdene-Sophiatown Residents' Association are determined to keep our future leaders safe and involved.
Gone are the days of alienating students from the community said the Westdene-Sophiatown Residents’ Association (WSRA) as well as the Brixton Police Station.
WSRA chairperson, Dauw Steyn, said the community should take students under their wing as they are some of the softest targets in the area.
“In December it was mostly student communes hit, rather than regular residential homes,” Steyn explained
He said the WSRA is planning to create a students forum in a bid to make them feel more part of the community but also to get them to participate in community safety activities.
“We want students to join our Facebook groups and WhatsApp street groups, not just so they can stay informed about crime but also so that we can assist them,” Steyn said with conviction.
He explained that the two students the community last took under their wing had a few definite work options lined up after their studies.
Other than the crime aspect of student life, Steyn explained that students are often taken advantage of, especially when it comes to their living situation.
He explained that some legal student communes are rather lovely, others – illegal ones in particular – are overcrowded and don’t provide rooms that are sanitary.
On the South African Police Service’s side, Brixton Police Station’s new station commander, Colonel Mkhacani Maluleke, said that students are one of the station’s priority.
Maluleke so aptly explained to Northcliff Melville Times that students are the future of the country and therefore should be protected.
“We want to ensure them and their families that we will do everything in our power to keep them safe from any criminal activities at all times,” said Brixton Police Station spokesperson, Jeanette Backhoff.
Backhoff said that this should be taken as a friendly warning to criminals in the area, that crime against any student will not be tolerated.
Steyn said they have yet to establish a student forum but explained that it is one of the many items on the WSRA to-do list for 2018.
ALSO READ: UJ student killed at private accommodation
