CPF meetings like a compass

EDITOR – A response to Mr Hegter’s letter, read in conjunction with his response.

I have done my best to respond in the order that you did.

It is always pleasant to try and decipher a politician’s speech. I will give it a try though.

Have you ever really listened to the proceedings of any of those meetings? They are like a compass, round and round in a circle, it might also be one of the reasons why your meetings are so poorly attended. Our community does not want lip service Mr Hegter, they want action. Our community is burning and it seems the only tangible action is meetings and more meetings. The time for action is now, not tomorrow, not next week and certainly not next year. It might be that you only started taking note of me at meetings once you associated me with a local security company as you put it. Let’s call a spade a spade, the security company as you put it, is Kombat Force. I have attended other meetings and other times my wife has attended, but as far as I am concerned, attending your meetings that are of little or no help does not indicate my level of commitment to the community. As far as contacting you personally, either your mail system works sporadically or you only answer letters in the printed media or social media. I have emailed you on the above email address numerous times with no response.

Why you would fail to understand my ‘submission’ is perplexing to say the least. I am not submitting anything. I am stating a fact that the community is confused as to what meeting is when. This has been caused by the CPF and SPF. Clearly your logic is completely different to that of the man on the street. The more misinformation that goes out to the community, the more confusion it causes, it is an old politician’s trick. I dare you to accompany me to any of our fine, local establishments and ask any community member if they are confused as to what is going on in the community policing forum and the sub policing forum, and at the same time ask them what these two bodies of caring citizens have achieved since they have been in effect. The answer will be ‘very little or nothing at all’. Dates for the next SPF meeting has since been cleared up with a notification in the Southland Sun, coincidently the same week as I sent you my first mail.

The information that I have found out, about when meetings were meant to be held, cancelled, postponed or whatever, was not come by readily, it did not mean that the rest of the community knew about it as well. You and your gang seem to think that your ‘privileged few’ on your WhatsApp group should be the only ones in the know. Why are certain community members removed from these groups? I can name names if you would like, starting with myself. Brenda Neil took it upon herself to delete me as a contact. If these groups are meant for the community then all should have access to them, not who some arbitrary person thinks should have access. From my understanding MCE or whatever you want to call the WhatsApp group now, is the intellectual property of the Montclair SPF. I take it those groups and all signage will be handed over to the next SPF committee? Another question, in what capacity is Brenda Neil attending the GOCOC meetings, if she has resigned from the SPF?

The CPF has more than a constitutional requirement that they need to meet – they are answerable to the community. We are not interested in how many meetings there are, we want to know what has been achieved, and reporting the crime stats for our area is not an achievement. Well not in my eyes anyway, maybe a politician would see that as an achievement.

As you state: “A number of the CPF executive committee members were removed from office due to their failure to perform their duties in terms of the constitution. Where necessary these positions were filled by members of the community who were co-opted into the positions in accordance with the constitution.”

When were these committee members removed? When where these other community members co-opted to the CPF? According to the constitution 12.9, there should have been a special general meeting which would mean the community would be involved. Did this special general meeting take place and when did this happen?

The SPF or rather sub policing forum should be constituted as per the provincial CPF. Now this would mean that they would need all the same exco members as any other committee, what you are telling me, is that the sub policing forum is actually not recognised in the provincial CPF.

I wait eagerly for the audited financial statements.

My association and involvement with Kombat or as you so eloquently put it “Security Company” has everything to do with the reasons I am asking these questions! Your personal attack of anyone associated with Kombat is my main reason. You only think what you say in the presence of your so called trusted circle does not get back to me from some seriously concerned citizens, statements such as “only an insane self-serving individual would go to the lengths that you have, to prevent Kombat from operating in our community” or other variation of that, are stated frequently, ask around and if community members are honest they will tell you the same thing. Before you state that they are operating illegally, please check your facts. Unlike some I don’t go running to big brother and make up stories.

That brings me to another point, the march arranged by the ANC not ‘some political party’ was not against, as you put it “Montclair SAPS, Montclair CPF and our elected ward Councillor” – it was against crime in our area. Did you not listen to the memorandum that was read out? You were standing right there behind the fence while it was read, and victims of crime poured out their hearts, begging for crime in our community to be dealt with. Anyway the three bodies mentioned are accountable for crime prevention in our area.

I will support any action that highlights crime in our community, regardless of the colour, creed, religious or political orientation of the organisers. Is it because you have loyalties to another political party that you did not support this march against crime? Strange how you supported the march against violence against women. CPF committee members have to be apolitical purely due to the nature of the forum. I happily support SAPS in our area, I personally believe they are doing a great job, there is room for improvement, but that I will not discuss in the open media, or WhatsApp groups, unlike how MCE does.

You can question my motives as much as you want, I am an open book when it comes to the community’s wellbeing. If you want, you may come chat to me on the grass along Kenyon Howden Road, you know exactly where to find me most Fridays and Saturday nights until the early hours of the morning. On particular week nights if you wish, you can join me in my car at my expense as a passenger free of charge, as a few (actually in the region of 15 to 20 vehicles and more than that number in people) of our community members patrol the entire Montclair SAPS area. We do this Mr Hegter not for brownie points, not for media coverage, not for monetary reward, we do this Mr Hegter because we are concerned citizens of our community. We do not meet ‘constitutional requirements’, we do not have meetings to discuss any security company in our area, in fact we know the brave men and women that work for these companies and gladly assist them if needed. Be it as an extra set of eyes at night, or a friendly chat over a cup of coffee at 3am when it is bitterly cold.

My question to you Mr Hegter is: What were you doing this morning at 3am? When your neighbourhood was burning and we were trying our best to prevent the scourge of this earth from stealing that which we work extremely hard for? I bet you were fast asleep, even with the dogs going berserk outside your house and alarms going off. Besides going on a drive around with SAPS and driving around in the early evening, which we all do anyway, be honest with yourself and ask what have I done for the community lately?

I have seen you out and about less times than I can count on my one hand.

Seems like I might have a future in politics.