SECUNDA – Col Harold Mashile, commander of Secunda Police, spoke to members of AfriForum Neighbourhood Watch and the community at an AfriForum meeting recently and thanked the community and AfriForum for their support.
He said everybody has the right to protect themselves within the framework of the law.
“We have many structures in Secunda doing crime prevention, but they are all linked to the Community Policing Forum (CPF) consisting of four sectors,” said Col Mashile.
“The community decides who is the chairmen of the sectors and the CPF must also work within the framework of the law.
“When we get complaints against the people working with us, it becomes a problem for us.”
He urged the community to work with the police and not conduct roadblocks or search operations by themselves.
“You cannot search a person for drugs and expect me to arrest that person, I must be the one to take the drugs from him, otherwise it will not stand in court.
“An arrest made by the community will be unlawful, this should be clear to you.”
He warned the community that they will end up in prison if they take matters into their own hands.
“We do not want to have crime in this area, so we need to work together to fight crime.”
Mr Jan du Plessis, chairman of AfriForum’s Secunda branch, gave an overview about the ongoing problems in town, including street lights that are not working and sewage pump stations.
He said AfriForum will begin with their Bloudruppel Project soon and test water at schools and various other places.
“We will test if the water is good for human consumption and if not, we will put up tanks to provide the schools as well as the community with water,” said Mr Du Plessis.
