Community crime and safety meeting held
The meeting informed the public on challenges faced by Brackendowns SAPS, Brackendowns CPF and the municipality.
Brackendowns CPF, Ward 38 councillor Malcolm Maifala and the Vispol head of Brackendowns SAPS hosted a community meeting on crime, safety and service delivery on June 1 at Bracken Park Community Hall.
The three speakers addressed concerns that the community harbours as well as inform the community of challenges faced by the police, CPF and the municipality.
Brackendowns CPF chairperson, Geoff Steyn, expressed his concern regarding the lack of attendance by the community and the impact this could have on community safety.
Brackendowns Vispol commander, Lt Col Arthur Engelbrecht, opened the evening by addressing the attendees on the status of crime within the area and the challenges faced by Brackendowns SAPS.
Major concerns within the highlighted were hijacking and business robberies. He further indicated that areas next to open fields were a major risk factor when it comes to criminal activity.
Challenges faced by the station he highlighted included a lack of manpower with the station being 20 members short.
The issue of the station’s premises belonging to the municipality and the station therefore not being able to be upgraded creates problems at the station. Brackendowns SAPS does not have a generator meaning that functions the station is supposed to deliver become impossible during outages and load-shedding.
He reminded the community that their awareness and assistance help the police immensely and thanked all role-players for assisting the police in ensuring the safety of the public.
Maifala addressed service delivery queries from the public.
Challenges he spoke of included the centralisation of services leading to a split of the budget as well as delays due to service delivery queries having to be sent to the offices in Germiston.
Lockdown regulations have also affected service delivery issues relating to safety. Certain issues such as street light repair services being considered non-essential.
Maifala highlighted the role that service delivery plays in combatting crime. He shared that a clean community helps to dissuade criminals.
Steyn asked residents to be the eyes and ears of the CPF and police. “We need everybody to come on board,” he said.
He added, when it comes to challenges faced by the police, that only two sector vehicles are available. He went on to explain that the process of fixing these vehicles can take extremely long due to the tender process requiring 10 tenders to found before the work can be completed.
He encouraged residents to open cases when suspects are caught.
