CPF expulsions – More details emerge

The CPF (Community Policing Forum) is running dry of members after their big announcement put residents in a buzz.

The CPF Exco (Executive Committee) announced the expulsion of six chairpersons on April 25 and now the community demands answers.

WITBANK NEWS earlier stated that the CPF Chairperson, Mr Aaron Khumalo, broadcasted a message on CPF groups announcing the immediate dismissal of David Wessels, Stanley White, Koos Farell, Piet Wassenaar, Rudi Botha and Johan Zwart, all chairpersons from Sector 2.

It came as a shock to the community as Khumalo stated that they were expelled because of overstepping the Code of Conduct.

“We did not receive or sign any code of conduct for the CPF,” White stated.

This has been confirmed by a message that Khumalo sent out to his remaining chairpersons on May 8, two weeks after the expulsions, requesting that all current Chairpersons return their signed Code of Conducts ASAP.

“Until now I really do not know why we were expelled because Khumalo just does not have answers. My members want to know why I was expelled and I can not give them answers,” Wassenaar said.

It is alleged that the friction between the PRO (Public Relations Officer) Madelon Troskie and the Sector 2 chairpersons began in February when she deleted David Wessels from the CPF Emergency group for no reason.

“I addressed my concern to Troskie and her reply was that she is just following instructions given to her from Khumalo and that I have to take it up with him. I attended the following Exco meeting and asked him if he ordered Troskie to delete me and if so what the reason was, he refused to give a response.” Wessels stated.

He went on in the same meeting to lay a complaint against Troskie for a serious violation of the Code of Conduct on her part, calling for her immediate dismissal, which Khumalo until this day has not given any attention to. This complaint has been escalated to different forums and criminal as well as civil charges are still being considered against Troskie.

It was alleged that numerous complaints, addressed to Khumalo by the Sector 2 Chairpersons were never given any attention. The Sector 2 Chairpersons have had concerns with the unprofessional manner that the CPF and Exco has been managed and this was confirmed by meeting minutes dating as far back as January in which it was stated that they will all be withdrawing from the CPF if the Exco does not shape up. The entire Sector 2 had made their final decision to withdraw from the CPF on the day before they were expelled from the CPF.

This was confirmed via messages made available to the media for verification.

“Del Judor ext 4 had already held their meeting and voted to convert to a Neighbourhood Watch even before the Exco held their meeting to expel us”, White added.

“The decision to leave CPF was public knowledge in Del Judor ext 4 in which Troskie is a resident; “I personally think that this was the reason that they called the special meeting to expel us, before we resigned. Why else call a meeting at one days notice? What was the urgency? It was unfortunately already too late for them” White said.

WITBANK NEWS gathered all conversations and recordings of incidents that occurred between the CPF, both chairpersons and members, where it became evident that the Constitution of the CPF along with the Code of Conduct is being grossly overstepped by their own Exco members.

It was also stated that one of the members, Salome Botha was obligated by Troskie to put in a complaint against the former members after an incident occurred in Sector 1, where of the expelled members went to assist in an attempted farm attack. The reason for the complaint was to be that the other sector members operated in their area. Botha stated she will not lay a complaint as they were there to help her. Troskie then decided to lay the complaint on behalf of Mr Willem Botha, the Chairman of Sector 1, who was absent from the meeting and Khumalo accepted it as such.

Khumalo had the following to say about assisting the WITBANK NEWS with meeting minutes with respect to the expulsions,

“I need to get straight here, my CPF, minutes and anything that has to do with my Exco stays within the Executive Committee. We do not have to explain ourselves to anyone about our decisions and the members of CPF know the channels to follow for whatever information they need. So I don’t need to explain anything to the media or whoever. So stop trying to investigate our decisions as they are our private matter. This subject is closed.”

The subject is closed from the CPF side but residents in all sectors still want answers and until they get those answers all six sub-sectors have decided to go ahead preventing crime as a Neighbourhood Watch. The voting process that has been completed by five of the six sub-sectors, involving hundreds of votes, resulted in a unanimous decision to all become a Neighbourhood Watch, with not one single vote in favour of staying CPF.

As a last minute decision before going to print, Sector 1 (Kalbasfontein / Kromdraai) has also made the decision to withdraw from the Witbank CPF.

Regardless of what organisation we represent, we will always be there for our members.

This is a sentiment shared by all of the Ex-Chairpersons that were mentioned above.

ALSO READ:

https://www.citizen.co.za/witbank-news/92040/cpf-committees-sudden-announcement/

https://www.citizen.co.za/witbank-news/71424/response-team-on-duty-for-cpf-the-only-recognised-crime-prevention-organisation/