Roodepoort CPF intensive meeting

What was supposed to be a normal run of the mill meeting turned intense as the Roodepoort CPF held its very first AGM feedback meeting.

The meeting was going well, with chairman Leon Vieira reporting on the successes and work done by the CPF during the year as Roodepoort station commander Brigadier Thandi Kupiso, Councillors Gert Niemand, Willie van der Schyf and JMPD representatives were in attendance.

However, just as Vieira was in the middle of his speech, a crowd suddenly burst into the hall led by ward 124 councillor Sabelo Ncane and filled the hall.

At the beginning of the meeting, it was made clear that organization did not need to do elections as they were elected in June last year.

Other organizations elected before the month had to arrange elections as per the Gauteng Safety Department and CPF National.

Some of the things the CPF has accomplished this year include establishing relationships with the Gauteng Safety Department, Honeydew Cluster Police Board, Roodepoort SAPS and the various sector crime forums and block and neighbourhood watches.

“We are not the watchdogs of the police, we are working together with them. We have to unite because our main focus is crime and we want to be an added value to them and to our communities,” he said.

The floor was then handed over to Kupiso who spoke about how to identify and report corrupt police officials and pleaded with those in attendance to always report unlawful activities.

“Due to the Roodepoort SAPS Sectors borders that were changed due to the magisterial border demarcation changes, areas such as Leratong, Tsepisong and Doornkop were given to Kagiso. This meant that we had to give them more vehicles and members. This was a blow to us as we were already understaffed. I appeal to everyone to report anything they see which is unlawful. Our police members cannot be in every street so report it to us then we’ll take it from there,” she said.

However, problems started surfacing as the chairman opened the floor to the public to ask a few questions.

While councilors Niemand and van der Schyf added positively to the discussions, it was only when councilor Ncane stood up that the meeting started to derail.

Although some of his questions were valid, including creating sector police structures in Matholesville and electing two members to fill the vacant positions in the Roodepoort CPF executive, he was informed that his particular questions were addressed earlier in the meeting.

But this only served to incense him and like a choreographed performance, after he had his say and was not satisfied with the answers, he stood up and left, followed by a few people.

After that, some from the crowd that had arrived with him started asking about elections.

This went on for 30 minutes as Vieria answered their questions repeatedly but they would ask the exact same question a minute later, clearly unsatisfied with the answers given.

At the end, Vieira had to stop taking questions and close the meeting, much to the relief of others attending as a meeting that started at 6.30pm ended only after 8pm.

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