Mitchell’s Plain police station commander Brigadier Mark Hartzenberg, protection officer Kurt Nefdt, Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Anroux Marais, Mitchell’s Plain Community Police Forum chairman Norman Jantjes, national assembly portfolio committee chairman on police Ian Cameron, community worker Ashwin Johnson, from Portland, and neighbourhood watch sector Hyde Park chairman, Vernon Fortune.
Mitchell’s Plain neighbourhood watch members are working together to fix communication, iron out disagreements and unite to fight crime.
They committed to this during a safety and security meeting they hosted at Alliance Française, in Portland, on Saturday August 10.
“Mitchell’s Plain is dying and it is because the neighbourhood watch don’t see eye to eye,” said Colin de Hart, chairman of Beacon Valley neighbourhood watch.
Mr De Hart, Hyde Park neighbourhood watch chairman Vernon Fortune, former Portland neighbourhood watch member Ashwin Johnson, Beacon Valley neighbourhood watch members Fayroez Coetzee and Hayley Powell, Eastridge neighbourhood watch executive member Deidre Petersen, and Tafelsig East neighbourhood watch members Stella Cornelissen and Bahiyya Davids got together about a month ago to discuss problems members had brought to them.
“We are going to attempt to fix Mitchell’s Plain neighbourhood watch with the members and for the members to help the community,” said Mr Fortune.
He called on two representatives from each of the eight sectors in the Mitchell’s Plain police precinct to form an interim committee which would take the next steps in fixing “what is broken in Mitchell’s Plain”.
Mr Johnson supported Mr Fortune by saying that decisions should be taken for and by members.
He said often problems were not discussed and addressed via proper channels.
National assembly portfolio committee chairman on police, Ian Cameron, said the community has to work together to reduce the number of murders.
“We can never accept murder to being normal,” he said.
Mr Cameron said the role of the neighbourhood watch was operational and that the CPF was mandated to ensure a partnership between the police and the community.
“The police must work with anyone that is willing to combat and coordinate the fight against crime,” he said.
“The CPF does not hold any authority over neighbourhood watch. CPF is not an operational structure,” he said.
He said the CPF was mandated to do oversight just like the MEC and that all community groups should support each other work together to ensure the safety of the community.
“Drop the ego and spend time together to work through these things. Speak frankly with each other but when you walk out - as leaders - then you talk together,” he said.
Mitchell’s Plain police station commander Brigadier Mark Hartzenberg said SAPS and the community must work together and implement strategies to prevent crime.
“I would like to commit myself again. We are so willing to work with anyone in Mitchell’s Plain with the specific purpose to create a safe and secure environment for everyone to live in,” he said.
Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Anroux Marais thanked volunteers for their service in their community.
She spoke on the topic of community police forums.
“CPFs must also promote and coordinate the free flow of information between the police and the community regarding safety matters within the specific police precinct which is also in the area in which the CPF operates,” she said.
“Managing relationships between people and personalities is often tricky and tiring but we have to keep working at it, especially if it is tough. I know that crime is depressingly high in Mitchell’s Plain, which is in fact the Western Cape’s largest police precinct. Of course the crime figures are terrible, depressing and unacceptable but imagine how much worse it would have been without you,” she said.
Mitchell’s Plain CPF chairman Norman Jantjes said working in Mitchell’s Plain is a tough job with the high number of murders and attempted murders.
He said the area has a history of division, where difference of opinions and egos were raised, which stood in the way of collaboration.
“If we are not going to work together we might as well forget about preventing crime,” he said.