Malvern CPF not disbanded, says chairperson

THE Malvern Community Policing Forum has not been disbanded and neither has the organisation’s executive committee.

This is according to chairperson Kevin Pillay, who spoke to Queensburgh News recently in the hope of providing residents with some clarity.

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Firstly, he said, it is law that a CPF must exist wherever there is a police station in an area, therefore the Malvern CPF in its entirety cannot be dissolved.

Pillay explained that it is the executive committee that has been placed under fire, for reasons of which they are not aware.

“It all started after the CPF asked the then-Malvern SAPS station commander what he plans on doing to curb copper theft as there had been 15 cases reported in a week. We asked for a plan to curb copper theft, but it was taken out of context and interpreted that we had requested the station’s operational plan,” said Pillay.

He added that as the Malvern CPF, they had every reason to ask the question about the spike in crime as it is the organisation’s mandate to hold the SAPS accountable.

“Ever since then, we have become the bad guys, and to date, we have had no formal email explaining why Malvern SAPS wants the executive committee removed. EXCO was not appointed by SAPS; the public vote us into these positions,” he said.

“We’re holding an AGM in May and invite the public to vote for a new EXCO. We stand strong and confident in what we do, not only to fight crime but to assist every resident within the Malvern area, in whichever way we can,” he said.

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He added that the good work of the CPF is evident in the awards it scooped last year at the KZN SAPS Provincial Excellence Awards.

“We were a runner-up in Best-Performing Provincial CPF of the year out of 184 police stations and placed first in the district out of 42 police stations. There was strict screening done before these awards, so if we were not doing something right, we could not have done so well. To enter the awards, the CPF had to submit a portfolio of all its community projects, events, meetings, patroller registers and the like, and we have always received clean audit reports,” he said.

District CPF chairperson responds

Aidan David, chairperson of the eThekwini District Policing Board, said the process of disbanding the Malvern CPF EXCO had been done incorrectly.

According to David, the then-Malvern SAPS station commander had alleged that the Malvern CPF EXCO was an interim committee of 2019 because they did not adhere to the national instruction of an AGM to be held in 2022.

When this information was brought to David’s knowledge by the Community Safety and Liaison Department, he recommended that the SAPS District Office have an urgent meeting with Malvern CPF executives in order to clarify the allegation because ‘that was the right thing to do.’

“My recommendation as the district chairperson was never taken by Major-General Makhosazana Kheswa who went ahead and asked for a disbanding of the structure to be finalised by March 13,” said David.

“I did mention to all concerned that if the Malvern CPF was not legitimate, then what criteria was used by community safety and SAPS to make them runners-up for the Provincial Commissioners award in the category of Best-Performing CPF in the Province?” said David.

“It was also alleged that the station coordinator did not sit with the CPF structure for two years. I questioned this because she did get paid by the state to perform her duties as a CPF coordinator, and if this was true, then how could she have robbed the state by receiving a salary for two years without doing her job? I guess me asking this question became a problem,” he added.

The Malvern SAPS declined to comment.

The public is invited to the Annual General Meeting of the Malvern CPF on May 11 at Queensburgh Civic Hall, Main Road, Malvern, at 14.00. For more details, email secretary@malverncpf.org.za or info@malverncpf.org.za.

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