Neighbourhoods take up fight against crime

Street committees seen as route to safety

AN increase in crime in Durban is persuading communities to take their safety into their own hands.

Neighbourhood watch groups and street committees are on the increase across the city in an effort to combat a rise in criminal activity.

In Phoenix, a private security company has created a system to aid residents on a street-by-street basis. The initiative was prompted by a recent spike in home invasions and business robberies in the area. Last week, a group of 10 gun-toting men held up a shopping centre in Westham, Phoenix.

VIP Protection’s Glen Naidoo said: “The scary thing in the Phoenix area is that we’ve seen very wellorganised criminal activity. There are gangs of people operating — they aren’t coming in ones and twos, but in groups of up to 13 people and all are well armed.”

Naidoo said thanks to one of the more successful committees in the area, two suspects were arrested this week and R100 000 in money and designer goods was recovered by the police.

“The suspects tried to break into one of the homes in the area, but we were alerted by the residents. Community members chased after the suspects and made the arrest.”

Manhar Parshotam from Dragon Protection services said criminal behaviour had

We’ve seen very wellorganised criminal activity

seen a “great increase this year” across the board.

He said some of the hardest hit areas included places such as Sunningdale in Durban North, Umhlanga and Reservoir Hills — the site of an Italian Job- like heist last week.

In the early hours of Wednesday last week, the Papwa Sewgolum Golf Club was attacked by five armed men who held up security guards and used explosives to get access to an undisclosed amount of money.

Satish Dhupelia, a community activist and head of the Sydenham neighbourhood watch, said the golf course raid was the latest in a long line of incidents that proved the brazen attitude of criminals.

This week, the municipality’s Imagine Durban team hosted an open forum on community safety.

Head of communications Tozi Mthethwa said: “The purpose of the session is to present possible ways which could be used by ordinary members of the public to reduce possibilities of crime in accordance with the law.”

Mthethwa said there was no registration process necessary when starting a neighbourhood watch group, but the municipality wanted to be kept in the loop.

Readers can contact the municipality’s safer cities unit on (031) 311-4498. For details of meetings, e-mail safercities@durban.gov.za.

For more information on how to set up a street committee, contact Glen Naidoo on (031) 502-3456.