Accountability, transparency and stronger community participation dominated discussions at the annual general meeting of the Pretoria North Community Police Forum recently.

Residents engaged CPF leadership and police on crime trends, safety strategies and governance concerns.

CPF spokesperson Lebo Moloi outlined the forum’s key achievements over the past year, highlighting school safety, festive season patrols and community engagement initiatives.

“One of the biggest initiatives was school safety. The Christmas drive was very, very well done. We had people patrolling all the time throughout the Christmas season, and our patrollers came through for us,” said Moloi.

She added that the CPF also hosted a free community engagement event and strengthened communication efforts.

Moloi acknowledged, however, that one of the CPF’s biggest challenges remains limited community involvement.

“Our biggest call is the community not pulling in. We have noticed that the most community members see the forum as a separate entity instead of seeing themselves being part of the CPF,” he said.

To address this, the CPF has adopted a plan of action focused primarily on activating and educating community members.

“Most of our plan of action will be basically to activate community members and ensure that those who are members are educated and then they get involved in assisting us,” explained Moloi.

On measurable impact, Moloi said burglary levels in Pretoria North have decreased compared to previous years.

“When I moved into Pretoria North, we had high burglary. Yes, we still have a bit of burglary here and there but it has reduced from what it was as a high percentage to a smaller percentage.”

She added that Pretoria North is no longer among the top 30 most concerning policing areas.

“We are not even part of the 30 most concerning SAPS areas. We are way below that.”

Looking ahead, the CPF’s top three priorities for 2026 continue to be community involvement, school safety and business safety.

Pretoria North police station commander Colonel Nonzwakazi Julla of the local station, also attended the meeting.

She confirmed that theft of motor vehicles remains a major concern, occurring across residential areas and shopping centres.

“We are having challenges of theft of motor vehicles, which is scattered. It’s not in one place. Even in the residential places, they remove the gate motors and take vehicles from the residential area, as well as [from] the shopping malls,” she said.

Julla said police interventions include increased visibility in affected areas and targeted operations against organised crime groups.

“When suspects are arrested, we ensure that they follow the whole process and they end up in Kgosi Mampuru Correctional facility.

“We try and get the whole clan or the cartel because they are working in groups, it is organised crime.”

She assured residents that there are sufficient officers and vehicles deployed through sector policing and crime prevention units, working alongside CPF structures and other partners to increase visibility.

On firearm-related crimes, Julla revealed that five illegal firearms were recovered in February alone.

“We managed to recover five firearms which were taken out from the community so that people cannot be killed by those firearms,” she said.

Addressing drug-related crime, she said police target both users and dealers.

“If we arrest the users, the drug lords are still continuing. So we arrest both of them and they are being taken to court.”

She reassured residents who feel unsafe or unheard, “Their safety is number one for the police because one crime is too much.

“We want to ensure, by the assistance of the CPF and the police, that Pretoria North is crime free, people walk freely in the area and that their properties also are safe.”

Not all residents were satisfied as resident Malose Seanego criticised the structure and accessibility of the CPF, arguing that meetings should be community-driven.

“They cannot run that meeting themselves. The meeting should be run by the community. I mean it’s the community who appoints them.”

Seanego described the CPF as previously dysfunctional and not inclusive.

He stressed that CPF members operate under a constitutional mandate and must recruit members, fundraise and actively involve residents.

“It’s important to attend so that we can hold them accountable, so that they can show them the barriers, what to do and what not,” he said.

Despite criticism, Seanego described the meeting as fruitful and said it paved the way to the future, calling for greater public participation to strengthen safety efforts in Pretoria North.

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