West Greenlight Project bears results
“Since we started the project two years ago, attacks have declined by 90%.”
A community safety initiative to curb crime in the west of Pretoria has led to a vehicle being found a few hours after it was reported stolen.
Resident Marietjie Jardim said the aim of the Greenlight Project (better known as the Groenligprojek) is to be visible to criminals.
“At 02:37 on Wednesday I received a call from a friend of my son. His business van had just been stolen from their property in Dorothea Street,” said Jardim.
“I immediately called in the incident on our radio and the Groenlig bakkie responded promptly.”
Jardim said that thanks to the quick response of the Greenlight team, the police and the CPF, the van was found.
The Greenlight Project is the brainchild of resident Jan Nel.
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He had grown tired of the high number of crimes in the Kameeldrift West area.
Our area had too much crime, especially because we live on smallholdings, and patrols are not always effective,” Nel said.
After a gruesome murder in 2016 I decided enough is enough.”
Nel said he had pitched the project several times to community leaders and residents, to no avail.
“I tried to explain that the project could be successful even if each of us contributed just R100, but they were not interested,” he said.
“I eventually grew despondent, but just as I was about to lose hope in 2017, several residents made payments into my bank account.”
The Greenlight Project discourages crime by being visible to criminals.
Every evening a bakkie with a green light attached to its roof is parked near the crime zones in the area.
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This bakkie is manned by a guard and a dog.
“It might sound silly, but when criminals see the green light, they avoid the area – I did not believe this either until I saw it with my own eyes,” said Nel.
He said that Kameeldrift West was named by the provincial commissioner as one of three high crime zones in 2016.
“Since we started the project about two years ago, there has been a decline in farm attacks by 90%,” he said.
“Over the last two years, house robberies in town exceeded those on smallholdings for the first time ever.”
Nel said roughly 15% of the community is currently involved in the project.
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“We have our Groenlig bakkie out on the road every night, staying in touch with residents via the shortband radio.
“We also have an emergency number people can use.
“When we have funds available, we also place guards along the main routes who uses the radio to communicate all suspicious activity to the bakkie and the community.
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