TMPD urged to pull up socks in community crime fight

The chairperson of the Sunnyside CPF has expressed concern that the metro police were not assisting to address the locals’ crime challenges.

Sandile Dube said the metro police “tended to not attend” the meetings the CPF had with residents when they were invited.

“We constantly have issues with the notorious ‘white house’ as well as a spruit along Nelson Mandela Drive. Crime is continuous in these areas… there are forever incidents of crime,” Dube said.

He said motorists, pedestrians and students suffered in that area.

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“The ‘white house’ is a generator of crime as people use it to hide from police.”

Dube said there was only so much they could do as the CPF alone.

He said in the course of the year, the CPF had held three awareness campaigns.

“We have had meetings with Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela, where issues and challenges are raised.”

He said the Tshwane metro were also a stakeholder in these meetings but “our major challenge is the metro police, not responding to CPF meetings and getting to know the community’s challenges”.

He said this was a challenge for numerous CPFs in Tshwane.

He said Sunnyside would be a better place to live “if the metro police could come into play”.

Dube said the metro police were enforcers of by-laws in the city and could assist in tackling the issues of crime they encountered.

Metro police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba, said the metro police were actively involved in the CPF Sunnyside.

“We attend to requests made by forum,” he said.

“For instance, last month, there was a request to conduct operations at the so-called ‘white house’ and a joint operation was conducted and successfully so.”

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He said they were also part of the last meeting on 2 September.

“The follow-up meeting was supposed to be on 1 October, of which was cancelled till further notice.”

Mahamba said as the metro police, they would continue to work and partner with organisations that fought crime.

“Provide us with information and we will plan our by-law and road-policing properly.”

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