Plan to fight contact crimes
Putting a stop to contact crimes is top priority for newly appointed Putfontein SAPS acting station commander, Maj Johannes Makhubo.
Maj Makhubo took over from the previous station commander, Lieut-Col Khumbulani Mbatha on November 1, 2015.
On February 4, Maj Makhubo was promoted to the rank of major.
Maj Makhubo’s career started at the age of 24.
He is nearing 25 years of service in the SAPS.
He was first placed in Dunnottar Police Station, after his training in Pretoria.
From there, he served as a constable at the Putfontein SAPS.
In 1998, he was promoted to warrant officer at the Benoni Police Station.
Later on, he became a captain at the area office in Kempton Park.
He was responsible for coordinating operations and monitoring of the Business Intelligence (BI) systems.
In 2008, Makhubo served as the acting station commander at the Putfontein SAPS for a few months. In 2009, he was appointed as station commander for the station.
He was then moved to the Crystal Park SAPS in 2010 as a Visible Policing (Vispol) commander.
“I was given this appointment of the Vispol commander because there was a serious problem of housebreakings during that time, which we managed to decrease and eventually stabilised the police community relations in the area.
Maj Makhubo shared his plans on how he wants to bring change to the community of Putfontein.
He explained that he would like to introduce community policing that is in line with the recovery strategy introduced by the National Commissioner Lieut Gen Kgomotso Phahlane, where they are reintroducing the “Back to Basics” initiative.
The initiative focuses on every police officer doing the basics of policing and on doing these basics properly and consistently.
“I will conduct intensive outreach programmes to educate the community about contact crimes that are currently a problem in the area, such as assault or assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH), rape and domestic violence,” said Maj Makhubo.
“Illegal taverns contribute to these assaults, rape and robberies, so I declare zero tolerance on shebeens.
“There will also be improvement in the detection rate amongst detectives, so that we can satisfy complaints.”
Maj Makhubo said the relationship between the community and detectives must improve especially when it comes to giving feedback in investigations.“There will also be operations conducted in malls and universities, University of South Africa (Unisa) and Vaal University of Technology (VUT) in Putfontein.
“So, we can all work together in harmony.
“If anyone has a complaint, my door is open 24/7.”
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