UDM Mayor boosts crime fight

The KwaZulu-Natal Community Crime Prevention Association (KZNCCPA) has been strengthened, with Umzinyathi District Mayor James Mthethwa officially joining the ranks of one its chapters, IsiKebhe.
A ‘crime imbizo’ was held with great fanfare at the Oval on Saturday, attended by over 2 000 people.
Mayor Mthethwa, who is also a stock farmer, recently publicly expressed his desire to join IsiKebhe, saying he had been impressed by the track-record of this organisation in curbing stock-theft. IsiKebhe is part of more than 22 voluntary community crime-fighting organisations which, with the help of the Community Safety and Liaison Department, have formed the KZNCCPA. “I am now a fully-fledged member of IsiKebhe, and I am prepared and willing to join them with their anti-stock theft campaign.
“The members of these organisations are stock farmers who need to be assisted by the government to become fully-fledged farmers,” Mayor Mthethwa said.
“The other issues that made me join are housebreaking and the use of the drug whonga, which is on the rise. There is no future in the nation when such crimes are taking place, and that’s why I took the chance to be part of the crime-fighting.”
Tallman Zuma, Chairman of KZNCCPA, said the joining of Mayor Mthethwa should boost the status and the standing of the organisation in the society.
“The reason he is joining is because he wants peace and safety for all the people of Umzinyathi. We need other mayors, councillors and high profile citizens of KZN to associate themselves with the all the movements that are fighting crime. They must call on their people to be part of this movement – we all want peace and safety in KZN,” said Mr Zuma. Addressing the imbizo, Inkosi Sabela Majozi of Msinga noted that crime affects all people equally. KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Willies Mchunu, applauded Mthethwa’s move to join IsiKebhe, saying it was correct for him to do so, and adding that it was his Constitutional right as freedom of association to join IsiKebhe.
MEC Mchunu said IsiKebhe was not a vigilante group, but ‘a movement of people with genuine concerns and a desire to fight crime’.