Montclair CPF red-faced in failed state partnership projects

TWO PARTNERSHIP projects that would have benefited the youth and 200 impoverished families Montclair fell through.

The project was initiated by the Passenger Rail Association of South Africa (Prasa), the Department of Community Safety and Liaison, and the Department of Arts and Culture.

The former would have absorbed 10 young people under its mentorship while the latter would have provided much-needed food parcels.

According to the chairperson of the community policing forum (CPF) in Montclair, Aaron Nyadi, the three state entities approached them with these ideas. He said their failure to deliver has left them red-faced and disappointed. He further alleged that this has created an atmosphere of mistrust among residents with the CPF.

“We’ve experienced harsh backlashes from the community. Some have gone on to even accuse us of giving our relatives patrolling jobs and keeping the food parcels for our own families. We must emphasise how untrue these claims all are,” he said.

Nyadi said the chairperson of the CPF provincial board announced to them that Prasa had offered opportunities to the youth residing around railway stations in the first quarter of this year.

They were to assist in guarding Prasa property due to an increase in cable theft as well as ensuring Covid-19 protocols are observed at railway stations. The railway agency would have partnered with the CPF in this project.

“Ten CVs of unemployed youth were submitted. It was to be followed by training from Prasa once processed. SAPS were to assist with vetting recruits and other administrative requirements before Prasa initiated its recruitment process.”

“However, during the second quarter of the year, CPFs were informed by SAPS that only community in blue patrollers would be eligible to be taken which was not initially specified. The process hit a snag because most patrollers are also employed elsewhere so the process was delayed,” he said.

The local CPF chairperson added that after the July unrest, Prasa asked to be given space to fine-tune the programme. He said they would inform the applicants once they were ready, which caused more confusion and further delays.

However, the chairperson of the CPF provincial board, Prince Mathenjwa, refuted the claims of an agreement between Prasa and the Montclair Police Station.

“No one from Prasa approached anyone from that station. In my understanding, Prasa approached the executive committee about the community in blue, there is a lot of procedure to be followed like vetting people, training and so forth, all those things are not done yet. Another problem is the lockdown levels. Going forward the eThekweni cluster is dealing with it,” he said.

Nyadi further alleged that the Department of Community Safety and Liaison, and the Department of Arts and Culture offered food parcels to the Montclair policing precinct as one of the areas affected by the unrest.

He said towards the end of July, they were informed by the two departments that 200 food parcels would be delivered on Monday, August 9, to those who were most affected.

“Food parcels were not delivered on the said day, but only dialogue for social cohesion was conducted. This was even though the community was not pre-notified about it.”

“Since then, we were in the dark. Contact persons from these departments said things were beyond their control. The 200 beneficiaries are constantly enquiring about their promised grants of food parcels. On Tuesday, September 14, stock for 20 people and not 200 as promised were delivered to SAPS Montclair and the CPF was very disappointed,” he said.

The social cohesion advocate and director for Africa Solidarity Network, Daniel Dunia, said the distribution of food parcels are not the mandates of the two departments.

“The food parcels didn’t come from government departments. We get food parcels from private donations from NGOs. I know I gave them food parcels for 200 people. The quantity given to them was also given to people in Isipingo and 200 families received theirs,” he said.

In response to the delayed delivery, he said that the NGO giving food parcels was not ready in August.

A response from Prasa was not available at the time of publication.