Kensington takes back its suburb
"Crime is on the rise which has resulted in increasing concerns for residents."
The I Love Kensington Association (Ilka) is taking back its community with a Public Patrolling Spaces (PPS) initiative.
Kensington is one of the oldest suburbs in Johannesburg and boasts a proud heritage and history.
“People living in our space are keen to retain its ‘village’ type environment. We have an extremely diverse population living in our precinct and the existence of many schools and places of worship is testimony to the fact that people want to be here and have their roots firmly entrenched in the area. It is unfortunate that we find ourselves the target of undesirables who seek to prey on our perceived vulnerabilities,” said the Ilka chairperson, Mr Tony de Munnik.
He said crime is on the rise, which has resulted in increasing concerns for residents.
Mr De Munnik said Kensington has several access points to the suburb, making it easy for the criminals to enter the area and commit crimes.
“Most residents of Kensington work full time and those who are home during the day are usually elderly residents, or stay-at-home mothers,” he said.
These reasons were the driving factors for a public patrolling space initiative, aimed at making Kensington a clean and safe suburb.
“We know many households have armed response service providers but this is not the majority of our residents. The service provider will respond when an alarm or panic button is triggered and they are only responsible and contractually bound to the client’s property. They are legally contracted to an individual and not a community,” said Mr De Munnik.
Mr De Munnik said the project is not an armed response campaign and should not be compared with the armed response services some of the residents currently have.
“Our patrolling concept will see branded cars on the streets of Kensington that will provide peace of mind to all residents, irrespective of their standing.
“It will monitor activities in our suburb which includes suspicious people, littering and people looking to take opportunities that present themselves to harass or assault our residents in public spaces,” said Mr De Munnik.
Some aspects of the PPS will operate similarly to a security company.
“The people manning the cars, for example, will be registered with the relevant authorities and the structure envisages an operations centre with radio and electronic communications systems,” said Mr Munnik.
Ilka believes most crimes in Kensington are opportunistic in nature.
“This is due to the lack of visible public space monitoring. The criminals believe they can get away from the scene quickly, without being identified or caught, and therefore criminals are willing to take the risk. If the public spaces are constantly monitored, this opportunist-type criminal will look for other pastures to commit crimes.
“We are not undermining the police or metro police, but in recognition of their limited resources, we are looking to supplement and complement crime fighting initiatives to improve the safety of Kensington residents. The PPS initiative will have costs involved and we hope to obtain about 20 perecent of the residents to pay R250 per month towards this initiative,” said Mr De Munnik.
“Such a service will by definition enhance the value of properties and we believe taking this into account, the monthly contribution is reasonable. We also acknowledge and accept that we will have a cross subsidisation aspect to this initiative and we have commenced engaging with corporate entities operating in our space to garner their support,” said Mr De Munnik.
The initiative will employ people from the community and those who will require further training will be trained.
“Skills development is a key factor these days in any new initiative and the PPS initiative is no different. It will even create jobs. The plan was to launch in October, but due to legalities, the launch was postponed. We will not launch any service that is not legitimately registered and sustainable. We appeal to all residents to support this project,” said Mr De Munnik.
For more information, email chair@kensington.co.za
