Back up for local ‘watch dogs’
Money has been made available to increase community safety in municipalities in the Garden Route and Klein Karoo. With a sum of R1,2 million from the Provincial Department of Community Safety and additional funding in the pipeline, the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) can give financial backing to several community and municipal projects aimed at making the district a safer place.
Garden Route Mayor Memory Booysen invites all registered neighbourhood watches and B-municipalities in the district to submit their safety plans, with the prime focus on crime and crime prevention.
“Registered neighbourhood watches will be funded after the submission of their plans and programmes, which should include activism against the abuse of women and children.
Those who aren’t registered can ask for assistance to start the process. Our focus is on neighbourhood watches, because they know best how to protect the families in their wards,” said Booysen. Furthermore, each B-municipality will receive R50 000 to deal with logistics as soon as they’ve submitted their plans.
Booysen joined several district mayors last Friday, 8 November, for a safety engagement hosted by Minister of Community Safety Albert Fritz at Houw Hoek Hotel in Botrivier. A total of R5-million was transferred to the district municipalities with additional funds of R30-million available over the next three years.
Current engagements with Eden Police Cluster Commander Major-Gen Oswald Reddy and the community police forums are identifying the need for mediators, who will help defuse potential violence that might cause instability within neighbourhoods. Funding to train and deploy these mediators is available.
Safety plans can be submitted at the GRDM head office for the attention of Sphiwe Dladla, the district project coordinator.