According to Muldersdrift Station Commander, Lieutenant Colonel David Seabi, 95 per cent of all suspects apprehended in Muldersdrift are undocumented.
In a concerted move to reduce the potential of crime in the area, a number of high-profile hoteliers have committed to profiling all employees and outsourced contractors.
Trevor D’Oliveira, business spokesperson for the Muldersdrift Communication Action Group (MCAG), says this was an encouraging first step in adopting a zero-tolerance attitude towards crime in the area’s extensive tourism sector.
“We believe the private sector has a role to play in ensuring all employees are correctly vetted and we will be working hand in hand with the SAPS on this critical profiling process. Hoteliers now will be able to query the database for potential employee history before taking on a new person. We believe Muldersdrift will be one of the first tourism areas to adopt such a proactive stance with regard to safety and security of tourists and visitors.”
Seabi confirmed that this move will go a long way towards breaking the informant network as well as protecting the employees at many of the resorts.
Muldersdrift is becoming a benchmark for other key tourism areas in terms of the growing public private partnerships that are being developed with the various stakeholders.
The staff-profiling process is just one of a number of different initiatives being introduced in the area.
After a meeting on Wednesday with Gauteng’s Head of Operational Responses Services, Major-General Gela, where it was confirmed that the additional resourses allocated to Muldersdrift earlier this year would not be removed, D’Oliveira said it was looking very positive that at some time in the future, number plate-recognition cameras would be introduced into Muldersdrift to tie in with a broader national initiative by Business Against Crime. Local police and the flying squad could then be deployed immediately when a suspect or stolen vehicle enters the area.
Improving public awareness to ensure that residents know their designated police vehicles was one of the key messages from Gauteng Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant-General Petros earlier this week in which he stated that the community should play a role in monitoring the activities of their area police vehicles. He also emphasised the importance of making police stations more accessible to citizens.
D’Oliviera said the private sector had committed to assisting in this process by developing information boards for the various police sectors in the area and believed these would be beneficial in reporting any suspicious activity directly to the SAPS sector vehicle.
“We are encouraging all residents to utilise these direct sector numbers to ensure they get the service they deserve. We believe it’s a partnership relationship and are continually working on new ways to improve the communication between all stakeholders.”
