Brakpan SAPS hosted its monthly stakeholders meeting on June 24 at the Carnival City Rio Rooms to discuss current crime trends, questions and solutions.

The meeting was opened by Captain Pieter Booysen, who prayed for God to “give us insight and wisdom to discuss our crime, our problems, but then to get to solutions that honour your name.”

Cases from June 1 to June 23
Crime statistics for June so far, compared to the same period last year, reveal a reduction in many crimes.

Common robbery and robbery with a weapon other than a firearm both went up by one case, while business robbery went up by two cases.

House robberies decreased by three.

Carjackings went down by seven cases, but theft from or out of motor vehicle cases went up by five. Drunk driving cases were down by two.

Rape cases increased by one case.

Crimes dependent on police action decreased by 13 cases, illegal possession of firearms decreased by one, and malicious damage to property increased by four.

Problematic times
There were three business robberies reported from June 1 to June 23, one each taking place on a Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, in the areas of Anzac, Dalpark and Maryvlei.

Robbery with weapon other than firearm were committed on Friday, Saturday and Wednesday, in Dalpark, Brakpan Central, Maryvlei and Vulcania.

Business burglaries took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in Withok, Dalview and especially Brakpan Central.

Theft out of and from motor vehicles took place on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays between 12:00 and 18:00, in Brenthurst, Leachville, Dalpark and Brakpan Central.

Arrests made in June

The following arrests were made between June 1 and June 23:

• Assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm: 3
• Attempted murder: 1
• House break-ins: 1
• Business robberies: 1
• Common assault: 4
• Drunk driving: 14
• Drug possession: 18
• Fraud: 1
• Malicious injury to property: 6
• Robbery with weapon other than firearm: 2
• Robbery with firearm: 1
• Shoplifting: 8
• General theft: 3.

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Overall, Brakpan has moderate placements in the district and province in terms of number of crimes reported, but in general shows improvement in crime statistics compared to last year.

“Our mandate is to defend, wherever we failed we must arrest, and we are trying our level best. We are not going to give up,” said station commander Brigadier Johanna Ngoma.

On the matter of illegal mining, Drummond Doig highlighted that he was part of an operation raiding illegal miners and chasing them from the area near Gold One where they were active, working with the mine as one of the shafts with illegal mining activity belongs to the mine.

It was noted by Booysen that the illegal miners are armed with AK-47s, and shoot from within the shaft at anyone approaching.

On the matter of tampering with infrastructure, there were recently four arrests of undocumented foreign nationals known to tamper with and steal essential infrastructure, who will be appearing in court on July 13.

Doig again raised the concerns about a recycling company operating outside of an approved property in ways that do not comply with the law, who reportedly just wave around a permit whenever they are questioned.

Doig has noticed that companies dump waste at this group, which recently moved to Benoni according to police intelligence, and that the companies still dump where the group operated in Brakpan illegally.

EMPD feedback
Inspector Abdool Khan from the EMPD presented on crime and by-laws enforced by Brakpan EMPD. He noted that the number of vehicles being used in the Brakpan precinct increased to four since the last meeting, with 54 officers in circulation.

In April, 1086 Section 56 fines were issued, as well as 1 534 parking fines. Safety belt fines were 317 in April, 319 in May, and scholar transport operations were held at schools by Gauteng traffic wardens every school day from 07:00 to 09:00.

Scholar transport in Brakpan seems to have few problems, based on data from these operations. Delivery motorcyclists remain a problem, and are in several incidents each month.

Khan showed the meeting statistics indicating that by-law enforcement increased over the last three months, and noted that there is an increased problem with people running businesses from residential properties.

Brakpan CPF chairperson Tinus Jordaan noted that there are concerns that the EMPD focus on easy targets, such as informal vendors on the sidewalk, rather than those running businesses and partaking in industrial production from residential addresses, or trucks parking on town roads and taking up space.

Khan assured him that such matters will be attended to as well, and that the EMPD strives for fair by-law enforcement.

He went on to inform the meeting that there were 60 accidents through April and May, with three fatalities in the Brakpan area. Many of the accidents occurred on the R23 and R554 roads.