The absence of a Community Policing Forum (CPF) has left a vacuum in Alexandra’s public safety efforts, with police and the community struggling to agree on how to elect the structure.

While police attribute this to the community’s lack of will, some community members attribute the impasse to their lack of trust in the station’s current leadership.

Read more: Interim CPF in Alexandra serves beyond mandate as community awaits election date

Alexandra station commander Brigadier Vusimuzi Ngubane acknowledged that despite numerous meetings and calls for residents to elect a CPF, the community has been reluctant to participate.

He said that at previous attempts, the election was meant to go ahead even with a low turnout, but the community refused.

“They did not want to elect. They said they are too few, so they refused, and they also complained about the notice to invite them,” Ngubane said. He maintained that residents had always known about the meetings.

Community trust deficit

Community leader Midlaas Dikobo, however, said the problem is a trust deficit between police and residents. He believes turnout and the effort to elect a new CPF would improve with a change of leadership at the station.

“If they appoint new leadership, you will see a new CPF, and the things the community is complaining about will be things of the past,” he said.

Also read: CPF says high school learners fight over drug territories

He said some residents see no point in electing the structure because they believe police will make their own appointments regardless of the community’s wishes. “The community wants its own people, the people they trust, not those recommended by anyone. If the community chooses its own CPF, Alexandra will be great. It will see a crime reduction.”

Meanwhile, Ngubane insisted that police exercise no influence over the elections and allow residents to elect a CPF of their choice. He said the process is run by the district, not the station.

“I hear people saying Brigadier Ngubane did this and this, no. Brigadier Ngubane wants them [the community] to elect, but they don’t want to. Now, the district will tell us when they are coming back.”

Patrollers step in to fill the gap

Ngubane said at least 170 patrollers are on the CPF’s database and that police will work with them in the interim. “We are going to use them to perform the duties of the CPF while we are still waiting to have that structure.”

There is, however, no certainty about when that structure will materialise. The station had hoped to have a CPF by the end of this year, but those plans have collapsed, and Ngubane is now looking to next year.

Patrollers want a formal agreement

While police intend to lean on patrollers, the Alexandra Community Patrollers say they have never worked effectively with the police.

Patrollers’ leader Lucas Tsonga Manganyi claimed there has never been proper cooperation between the patrollers, the CPF and the police. “Even now, we are forcing things for them to recognise us and see that we are doing major work in Alexandra,” he said.

He said patrollers want to work with the police properly, and are asking for a memorandum of understanding setting out the terms of their cooperation.

Manganyi said they would also give police their code of conduct, to which police could add, and would then report back to the patrollers’ structure on how the partnership will work going forward.

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