Some crimes spike, emergency calls decrease in the west
"One of the biggest concerns we have is that residents do not report all crimes at the police station."
Crime, such as common break-ins, spiked in the west of Pretoria since the start of the national lockdown.
Sector 2 CPF chairperson Catrien Schoerie said they were concerned with house break-ins in the area.
“It is especially high between 01:00 and 04:00,” she said.
“During these times there are also a lot of fence jumpers.”
Schoerie urged residents to report all crimes to the police, no matter how big or small.
“One of the biggest concerns we have is that residents do not report all crimes at the police station,” Schoerie said.
“This interferes with our crime statistics. We need these crime statistics to be as accurate as possible to know which crimes we should pay more attention to.”
She said there was also a great need for food in the area.
“To date, we have handed out around 500 food parcels,” she said.
“The need is really big and we are trying to help where we can.”
She said any donation was welcome.
Sector 4 CPF chairperson Nico van Vuuren agreed that common break-ins were high in their area.
“In one night, we had to attend to a total of nine cases,” he said.
“We suspect that some of these break-ins are due to people searching for something to eat.”
Anyone wanting to help
should contact Schoerie at 082-434-6319 or Van Vuuren’s wife, Edna, at 079-124-4568.
Best Care ambulances services spokesperson Xander Loubser said there has been a drastic drop in medical emergency calls.
“Ambulance service emergency calls have dropped drastically during the lockdown,” he said.
“Motor vehicle accidents and assault reports have all dropped. Some days we had zero cases.”
Medical call-in rates have, however, picked up.
“People panic they might have the coronavirus when they are sick with flu-like symptoms.”
Loubser said a specific medical response was needed in the fight against the spread of Covid-19, which is why his service invested in a specialised Covid-19 ambulance unit.
“With time on our hands, we decided to help disinfect people at shopping centres and screen their temperatures before they go in.”
Loubser said Emergency Support Team, which is a non-profit organisation and consists of volunteers from the community, has been established as an essential service during the national lockdown.
“They are operational during this time,” he said.
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