Bluff residents know who to trust with the safety of their suburb [LETTER]
What communities want is an efficient, proficient police service devoid of political ideology and convoluted organograms which barely mention the vital role of Community Police Forums (CPFs).
EDITOR – For a suburb that effectively protected itself from the marauding bands of looters and arsonists, because of the unpreparedness of those officially tasked with that responsibility, the Bluff Ratepayers’ Association (BRA) is unimpressed that eThekwini Municipality’s safety and security structure held a public meeting, on the Bluff on Friday, July 23, to find out how responses to violence can be improved when the solutions are so obvious.
As various members of the public pointed out, those responsible for safety and security were not only unprepared to confront the violent looters in terms of equipment, rubber bullets, live ammunition and mobile readiness, but the intelligence services failed to anticipate the unrest.
Consequently, the BRA has little confidence in the distribution of booklets, advertising the role of the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service (CSPS) in combating unrest. Besides the complex bureaucratic lineage of responsibility within the CSPS, the BRA notes that the same people who failed to ensure preparedness in confronting the perpetrators of violence and arson a week ago, are still in charge of the CSPS.
Adding to the BRA’s lack of confidence is the government’s stated intention in the Firearms Control Amendment Bill to disregard self-defence as a reason to own a firearm.
The BRA also takes exception to the contradiction in the values the CSPS claims to hold. While the CSPS acknowledges the diversity of communities, it contradicts itself by its reference, repeated five times, to “transformation” of the SAPS. It is well-known that “transformation” is a code term for racial “baasskap” and as such is completely at odds with the constitutional principle of non-racialism.
After 27 years, ratepayers have seen only a decline in policing, along with most other government functions as a result of transformation. What communities want is an efficient, proficient police service devoid of political ideology and convoluted organograms which barely mention the vital role of Community Police Forums (CPFs).
Without the enterprise and initiative of Bluff CPF and its chairperson, Andy Rossell, in mounting a defence of the access routes to the Bluff, it’s infrastructure might not be as intact as it is today. Bluff residents know who to trust with the safety of their suburb.
DR DUNCAN DU BOIS
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