AfriForum’s control room for Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga handled more than 960 incidents in April this year while supporting the organisation’s neighbourhood watches in their respective provinces.
The aim of the control room is to support the AfriForum neighbourhood watches by ensuring that help and the necessary resources are made available quicker.
AfriForum neighbourhood watches in these provinces held 760 patrols in total in April (194 in Gauteng, 120 in Mpumalanga and 446 in Limpopo), in which 775 people participated.
“Incidents that stood out in the region comprise of unrests,” Mr Llewellyn Hemmens, AfriForum’s Safety Coordinator for Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, said.
“The number of unrests in the three provinces were higher than usual.
“Nine incidences of unrest were recorded in January, 30 in February, 104 in March and 83 in April.
“The control room offers a myriad of benefits to AfriForum neighbourhood watches,” Mr Hemmens said. “It identifies crime tendencies, as well as the types of crime that are on the increase in which areas.”
Regarding tendencies that increased, crime increased significantly over the Easter weekend. This resulted in more patrols than usual according to Mr Hemmens.
