Police concerns dominant at meeting
IMPROVED police visibility, temporary police stations in crime hotspot areas, and help in uplifting the community were some of the calls made by residents at a public participation meeting held at the Chatty Community Hall last night.
More than 100 residents came to raise the issues which most affect their daily lives.
Business owner Mohammed Desai, brother of the late Naeem Desai who was a victim of gang violence last year, asked why it had taken leaders so long to sort out the issues plaguing the northern areas.
Naeem was gunned down outside a Helenvale spaza shop on May 12.
When Desai asked why the military had not been brought in to clean up the area, mayor Athol Trollip said: “When you bring the military into civilian life, it’s the end. You can look at South Sudan and the Middle East.
“It’s the last resort when you bring the military into civil society to fight crime – that is why we have a metro police force.”
The meeting was attended by a number of mayoral committee members including metro safety and security head John Best, along with metro police chief Yolanda Faro and Bethelsdorp police station commander Brigadier Zolani Xawuka.
Residents raised various issues, including the community’s mistrust of the police, the lack of police visibility in areas known for gang violence, and drug posts still doing business despite police knowing of them.
Faro said metro police officers would be more visible in the northern areas as they would start working out of two offices at the Bethelsdorp police station today.
Trollip said land had been granted to the SAPS for the building of another police station in the northern areas.
He said the main aim of the meeting was to forge relationships between the SAPS, metro police, community policing forums and communities.
Bloemendal resident Eric Murphy wanted to know whether police had the right to stop and search people.
Responding, Xawuka said: “We are very successful in our stop and search [operations]. Most of the firearms and drugs we have recovered from the gangs are through [them].”
He said Bethelsdorp had been divided into four sectors, and police regularly visited these sectors to rebuild trust between the police and the community.
Extension 21 community upliftment project chairman Calvin le Roux asked Trollip what they would do to assist him in the upliftment of his community.
Trollip promised to arrange a meeting with Le Roux to map out a way forward to better the community.