The new members of the Tshwane central sub-district CPF board were elected on Tuesday at the annual general meeting held at the Valley Methodist Church in Villieria, Pretoria Moot.
New board members elected are: Merle van Staden (chairperson), Jaco van As (deputy chairperson), Susan Andrews (secretary), Sandile Dube (deputy secretary), Elsabe van Staden (treasurer) and Werner Beineke (public relations officer).
Participating in the elections, which take place every five years, were CPF chairpersons of CPF structures aligned to six police stations in the Tshwane sub-district including Garsfontein, Brooklyn, Sunnyside, Pretoria Moot, Villieria and Lyttelton.
It was reported that only Silverton did not attend the current elections owing to their delayed elections at station level.
Merle and Dube contested for the chairperson position and the results were 5 – 1 in favour of Merle, while Van As was elected to the deputy chairperson position unopposed.
Former secretary Dube could not retain his previous position as Andrews won it by 5 votes to 1.
Dube was, however, elected as the deputy secretary unopposed.
Elsabe van Staden and Beineke were also elected treasurer and public relations officer positions unopposed respectively.
Newly elected chairperson Merle urged all members of the board to work together and make a meaningful contribution towards the fight against crime.
She said they would not achieve any objective if they were failing to work together.
“One thing I have learnt in the past few years is that if we cannot do it together, we cannot do it,” she said, citing that working together did not only refer to newly elected sub-district members but the entire CPF members and the police in the area.
“Every person in every station, we have to move forward together.”
She said she still had a lot to learn and believed that an experienced Van As, who is now her deputy, would teach her a lot.
Speaking about the crime in the area, she said the board was aware of increasing levels of crime.
“We are going to try our utmost best to bring it down.”
She said they were actually busy with some plans to reduce it.
“Reducing crime is possible when good working relationships between members of the community, CPF and police exist,” she said.
Van As said it was unfortunate that their area was one of the top contributors of crimes in the country, citing that Brooklyn had high levels of vehicle theft as well as Lyttelton.
“It requires integration of resources to make the proper plans and strategies to be implemented to make a difference at the end,” Van As said.
Department of community safety representative Caroline Mputla thanked everyone who participated in the elections and encouraged newly elected board members and all relevant stakeholders to work together.
“As the department, we are committing to work together with the communities and the police in the fight against crime,” Mputla said.
She said the collective should ensure that crime was reduced in the priority stations including Sunnyside, Brooklyn and Lyttelton.
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