Shooting from the lip

The burglar abandoned his intrusion, hid in my garden as I searched armed with just a torch and pick-axe handle.

When he realised the cavalry was coming, he baled leaping over a wall into a neighbour’s property, fleeing.

Our NHW members knew the drill. Without a word being said, they deployed to our eight “Lookout Stations” around our ‘hood. Two remained and filtered through the properties on foot, looking to flush the suspect out. One stayed firmly with my family, a source of immediate comfort and support.

The police arrived and used the NHW network as their “eyes and ears”, as “force multipliers”.

Every non-patrolling neighbour still had a role to play: “NHW Watchers”. They turned on their lights, walked a few metres out their front doors to their pavements. A street-by-street safety net, cast wide. Everyone with a role to play.

We didn’t find the burglar. But that didn’t matter.

What counted was this: when we went our separate ways, into the week-day morning, we were stronger as a community. We’d scrambled to each other’s aide like a family. We’d reinforced our systems. Built on our resilience. Cemented our communal trust.

So how can we spread this model? Active citizens, banded together in community emergency response teams, the whole of our society reclaiming ownership of our safety?

Do we look for budgets? No, we look for champions. We look to our existing leaders.

If we could sign up every member of our provincial legislature. Every M ayor and Mayco member in the province. All 387 ward councillors.

All 150-odd SAPS station commanders and CPF heads. All 1 500-odd school principals.

If we enlisted and trained this relatively tiny number of our leaders as official “NHW Champions” could we activate the 5.5-million-plus people of our province?

Backed up by a powerful communications newsroom, sharing training, partnerships, proven systems and best practice? MAYDAY. We have an emergency. A response plan is calling.