Vani Pather – chairman of Oslo Beach Community Police Forum (CPF)
Area: Rathboneville and Oslo Beach.
Since inception about 10 years ago, we have gone from an average of 10 burglaries per month to about one or two a month. Also in the mix is the odd theft out of motor vehicle and sometimes muggings of domestic workers around the old fire station area.
Most recent initiative taken to combat crime has been the formation of a Whatsapp group that police are part of, which allows the community to share potential threats quickly.
Monthly meetings address crime hot spots and possible causes of crime, and the ward councillor assists by addressing municipal services that impact on safety and security.
Safety tips: Teach children important phone numbers. Report all incidents to the police – no matter how small. Know your neighbour and assist each other. Invest in adequate eco-friendly lighting.
Everyone is welcome to attend the community meeting held on the last Wednesday of every month at Suid-Natal Primary at 6pm. Text your full name and address to 082 5737910 to join the Oslo Whatsapp group.
Shelly Beach Crime Watch – Community Police Forum (CPF)
Area: Shelly Beach, although we do assist all surrounding CPFs when help is needed and they repay the favour. We believe that criminals have no boundaries. Thus we all should help each other.
Shelly Beach CPF works hand in hand with the police and surrounding security companies, and crime has declined immensely since we started.
Generous donations by many companies, such as Must Byt Charters and Shongololo Charters, have allowed us to purchase three cameras, which we can hide in crime hot spots to document activity in those areas.
Many arrests have been made with the help of the footage accumulated over weeks of surveillance. One of our main objectives is targeting drugs. We know that if drugs are in the area, crime will soon get out of hand. These drug users like to be in walking distance from where they can steal items, sell them and then buy their drugs. Our patrol team consists of Borrie, Chris, Jan and Strati. We work with the police, traffic department and local security companies Wolf, Maser, ADT and Lazer.
We are all on a Whatsapp group, so back-up is always close by. Weekly drug raids take place in Shelly and the results are astounding. Whoonga is still the main problem on the coast.
The community helps with monthly donations which keep the vehicles running. The eyes and ears of every single person involved are invaluable.
Safety tips: Walk around your house and approach it like a desperate criminal looking for a weak spot. Then fix it. Do background checks on the people you allow to work in and around your premises. Get involved in you local CPF. People looking away and not being proactive is part of the problem.
Everyone is invited to the next Shelly Beach CPF meeting at the AFM Church in Shelly Beach on September 5. We are always looking for more patrol personnel.
Contact chairman, Corrij Sumares at 079 7559719 or borrie7@gmail.com
Ernest Booysen – chairman of the Uvongo Community Safety Forum (CPF)
Area: Seaslopes Road in the south to the Umhlangeni (St Mike’s) River in the north, stretching from the highway to the beach.
We have a few added benefits which we offer to the community – we have a dedicated SAPS patrol vehicle which patrols our area between 6pm and 6am every night. Two police reservists, in our employ, are allocated to this patrol vehicle permanently. Thus the vehicle is available to us for any emergencies at night.
As a support to them we have a very active block watch team, which does organised group, visibility patrols as well as ad hoc individual patrols throughout the week. It also responds to emergency calls and we can relate various successes in this respect. All this is backed by a partnership with two of our local security companies, which respond immediately to any of our calls.
The block watches are functioning well and we have a number of success stories to tell. We have been joined by a number of newcomers on our patrols and we want to salute them for their support. We can still do with a few more volunteers.
We also run a well-supported Whatsapp group of about 600 members, which act as eyes and ears for suspicious activities. We have a 24/7, dedicated phone number (084 2498246) which can be phoned any time of day or night for assistance.
Summary of the housebreak incidents for June: The majority of incidents occurred during the daytime, with night-time incidents mostly taking place in the St Mike’s area.
The trend is that St Mike’s is targeted during the night and the remainder of the area gets visitors during day. Hot spot areas are Collin and Crown Roads. Most of the victims are holidaymakers.
Safety Tips: Keep laptops, cellphones, wallets and valuables in a safe place away from windows and doors. Don’t let these lie around in your apartment. Keep doors, security gates and windows of holiday apartments locked at all times and ensure that the alarm is activated when leaving and during the night. Ensure upper level sliding doors and windows are closed and locked at night. Do not take valuables to the beach.
All residents are welcome to attend the monthly meetings, which are held on the second Monday of every month in the Uvongo library activities room at 5.30pm.
Contact: UCSF 24/7 dedicated number is 084 2498246, Ernest Booysen (chairman) at 082 4688778 or Christiaan Pieters (secretary) at 082 8290848 or email to bernest@telkomsa.net or christiaan.j.pieters@gmail.com
