Naturena community unites in fighting crime and drugs

The community of Naturena gathered on February 10 to brainstorm, involving the residents in sharing ideas on how to deal with the problems of crime and drugs.

One of the community leaders, Nceba Ndube said the brainstorming session took place at the KABC Church, situated at the open space in Naturena Ext 19 between Phase 1 and 2.

“The reason for picking this venue was because it is in the middle of an open space that remains unutilized, with overgrown grass that also compromises the safety of the community.

“The venue was also picked so that it would be a practical example for the attendees to see the kind of negligence we face, like overgrown weeds and grass and potholes that keep growing. This is while our municipal leadership is busy fighting among themselves. The community ends up suffering as the phrase says, ‘when two bulls fight, it is only the grass that suffers’.

“In essence, the two bulls are the leadership and the grass is the community suffering from not getting serviced. The idea was to get a buy-in from the community to gather the culprits involved in criminal activities in the area and convince them if they wanted to regain the trust of the community, they need to voluntarily work for the community by cleaning the neighbourhood.

In return, we organise a big ‘lekker braai’ and have a ‘chill session’ with them and get to understand what makes them do what they are doing.

“We will also invite professionals to assist those who need to quit drugs. That was just the first step which got to eventually named as #cleanupnaturena campaign. The name came from one of the residents, Thato Monareng from Sechaba’s Place Pub and Grill,” explained Ndube.

The initiative took a turn during the meeting as residents brought forward their concerns about the mushrooming of foreign-owned tuck shops or spazas. They said they seemed to be attracting youth. There were suspicions that these tuck shops could be used as a front to selling some kind of illegal substance.

The community reached the consensus that on February 12 they would approach these tuck shops/spazas to reprimand them to either shape up or ship out.

“Seeing that this could turn ugly, I then saw it necessary to make precautions by alerting the authorities to be on standby because not knowing what could transpire or what kind of retaliation could take place.

“On the day at 09:00, the community showed up, but not in large numbers as anticipated. The community then decided to block the streets to attract other residents to join the action. As this was not part of what was agreed upon, I then asked them to remove stones and rocks blocking the streets because there was no need to inconvenience the same residents that we are to serve.

“We also don’t have to damage our infrastructure which also seems to be decaying. The streets were then cleared and the approach was peaceful, except for two incidents that almost went uncontrollable but were later intervened by myself and one of the community members and peace prevailed,” Ndube said.

“The approach to the tuck shops/spazas was for them to be regulated as there were reports that they sell expired goods that compromise the community’s health. They were promised that authorities will also be approached to start regulating them by regularly checking for expiry dates and other hazardous conditions.

“During the walkabout and visits to these spazas, a suspected local drug dealer was spotted and approached by one of the participants in the walkabout. An altercation took place between them, but it was quickly defused. Other than that, there were no other incidents,” he said.