CBDA to expand crime fighting efforts to Mankweng, Seshego
Central Business District Association (CBDA), chairperson Hamid Salman says the criminals have opened shop out of town after they were chased from the Polokwane CBD.
POLOKWANE – Despite a decrease in crime in the Polokwane CBD through the action of the Central Business District Association (CBDA), chairperson Hamid Salman says there have been calls to spread their efforts to Mankweng, Seshego and Moletjie.
Salman told BONUS that they have received many complaints of crime in those areas and there is a need to expand to the outskirts of the CBD where crime has increased.
“The combined efforts between the association, police and taxi associations has chased criminals out of town. It is obvious that criminals have opened shop out of town because there is no open space for them here.
“They were harassing residents who are our customers and because we are patrolling around the clock, they are now operating out of town. It is because of this that we have now decided to expand our operating perimeters to cover targeted areas.”
Salman says over the past few months they have seen shoplifting, theft of and out of motor vehicles, pickpocketing and drug dealing decrease in the city.
Where they used to record on average more than five cases of crime on a daily basis they are only recording the same number on a weekly basis and most often even fewer.
He says hitchhiking and gambling still remain an issue in the city but those numbers have also decreased.
“In order to expand our operations we are working with other community groups and have divided our own members that are dispatched daily to the other areas. As we work with taxi associations from those areas we usually swap them around so that no one patrols in their area to avoid victimisation and targets.”
He says they have been doing it for a few weeks now and have managed to make a few citizen’s arrests but need more community members to call them when they need help.
“Most residents in these areas don’t know about us yet, we need them to contact us whenever they need help so that we can help them. We will still continue to work with the police who will be the one’s to ensure the law takes course,” Salman said.
