Residents spurn police forum meeting
ALEXANDRA - Alex residents let an opportunity to air their concerns on crime go by not attending a meeting of the police forum.
ALEX residents let an opportunity pass them by to air their concerns about crime by not attending a meeting of the police forum.
Less than 50 people from the expected hundreds turned up at the Eastbank hall this last weekend for a mandatory Community Policing Forum meeting. Because of the poor turnout, chairperson, Kwena ‘Bulldog’ Rathokolo had to postpone.
Besides the few residents and forum executive members, including its secretary Benjamin Chisare, there was also the acting commander of the Alex Police Station commander Lieutenant Helen Tshabalala.
Rathokolo attributed the poor turnout to weekend events such as church services, social meetings, sports events and also a legislature meeting in the CBD.
He explained the forum’s function, saying it the CPF’s duty to harmonise relations between the community and the police, assist in fighting crime and to contribute towards resolving challenges in local law enforcement. Rathokolo said the forum was also a referral service for other social matters.
He said the main issue was house breaking and theft which occurred any time of day. He claimed that some of the criminals were foreign nationals who couldn’t be traced as they were not in the database of the Department of Home Affairs, making it difficult to apprehend them.
“Also, we have… crimes committed in shebeens and taverns which are mushrooming all over due to lack of effective enforcement of bylaws,” he said.
He added that many spaza shops owned by foreign nationals were broken into, but the owners didn’t report it. He suspected they did so to avoid attracting citizenship-related investigations.
Rathokolo added that despite the challenges, the forum – which comprises 14 executive members and 250 patrollers – functioned well with support from the police. The patrollers are volunteers who were first vetted for previous crimes before being accepted. Some of them are engaged on an allowance by the Department of Education to provide daily school patrols and to school premises, equipment and personnel safe.
He said some matters were referred to councillors, but some issues remained unresolved as they needed funding, which the councillors were not in control of. He said this in reference to housing needs and the recent damage to completed but unoccupied Botlhabela extension flats in Eastbank.
