Street patrollers hand over weapons
Safety group confiscates hundreds of dangerous items
FAKE GUN:
Astapler attached at roughly 90° to a round metal pipe cut to look like the barrel of a handgun was one of the more creative weapons in an eye-opening collection that Talk of the Town witnessed being handed over to Nemato police last Thursday.
A double chainring from a bicycle attached to a flattened metal pipe instead of a crank arm was possibly the most terrifying.
Home-made knives, penknives, curved daggers that look like they belong in a museum, massive pangas, a scimitar, the metal part of a hubbly bubbly, hypodermic needles and enough pairs of scissors to equip several foundation phase classes made up the collection.
The weapons – many of them home-made – along with various other objects were laid out on a piece of tarpaulin on the grass at Mamityi Gidana Stadium in Endlovini.
According to chairperson of the Masiphatisane Community Safety
Group, Ayanda Zoli, they were removed from people in Ward 8 whose explanations of why they were carrying them weren’t convincing enough to the organisation’s patrollers.
The weapons and objects – between 300 and 400 of them – were confiscated over a period of about two years, from late 2022 to date.
“Can you see it would be madness for us to allow someone to walk around with weapons like these?” Zoli said.
“How could we let someone continue walking along the street at night carrying something like this?” he said, pointing to a modern-day medieval battleaxe – the right-hand arm and cutting blade of a pair of longarmed pruning shears.
Zoli, who is also the chairperson of the local branch of the Uncedo Taxi Association, said the Masiphathisane Community Safety Group met every Wednesday.
They have a committee, and many members who patrol crime hotspots in groups. Due to the patrol groups being large, they are able to challenge people who are carrying dangerous weapons.
“We walk in groups with a minimum of 10 people in a group,” Zoli said.
The Endlovini patrollers work closely with a similar group in Station Hill, across Wharf Street.
TOTT asked how a typical interaction with someone they encountered played out.
“We greet them, ask them where they are going,” Zoli said. “Then we ask, ‘Can we search you? ’– but we ask nicely.
“If they are carrying a weapon, we ask, ‘What are you going to do with this?’
“If we don’t get a reasonable answer, or if they are arrogant, we know they are planning something and we ask them to hand over the weapon.”
And if they say the weapon or object is for self defence?
“Then we advise people not to walk at night, and to avoid certain areas at night,” a member of the group said. “There are no exceptions.”
The patrollers were not only looking for weapons, Zoli said.
“Some are carrying stolen goods.” What was missing from the collection was anything that would clearly be used to steal electrical cables, such as pliers.
“They use pangas, like that,”a group member said, pointing to one of several in the collection.
After TOTT had an opportunity to take photographs, the entire collection, wrapped in the red tarpaulin, was placed in the back of a police van.
Two police officers from the Nemato Police Station had been present throughout.
How do they distinguish themselves from vigilantism that is also active in the area?
In July last year, 29-year-old Shaun Beam died in hospital six days after being beaten in an alleged mob justice incident. He was alleged to have attempted to steal electrical cables from a property near Runeli Drive, not far from the stadium.
“When we suspect someone has been involved in criminal activity, we don ’ t handle the matter ourselves. We report them to the police because we are not allowed to arrest someone. Our boundaries are clear,” said Zoli.
“The police also patrol the area. Our role is not law enforcement but to be in touch with the situation on the ground.”
On the face of it, the role of this group seems to overlap with the work of community policing forums; however, CPFs are set up in terms of the Police Act (Sections 18 and 19 of the SA Police Service Act 68 of 1995) and have a legal framework for their operations.
While the Masiphatisane Community Safety Group has an organisational structure, they haven’t aligned themselves with the CPF. Is there a reason?
“We have no problem with the CPF,” Zoli said. “In fact our secretary is a member of the CPF. But there are issues with it that need to be sorted out.”
Zoli didn’t specify what the issues were, but said they would welcome a meeting with the CPF to discuss their concerns.
Meanwhile, the group have requested support from the public in cash or kind to provide torches, reflective vests, boots and transport for their patrollers. If you would like to assist, call Zoli at 082-482-5064.
In response to questions from TOTT, SAPS spokesperson Captain Marius McCarthy confirmed that community members of Ndlovini, registered as Community in Blue Patrollers had handed a large collection of potentially dangerous weapons to members of the Nemato Police Station, which was booked in as found property.
“These weapons [knives, pangas and all sorts of sharp objects] will be destroyed in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977, that determines that items confiscated as found property may be dispose off after three months if no claim of ownership was received,” McCarthy said.
“The weapons referred to were found by the patrollers during patrols in hotspot areas for contact crimes like assaults, robbery and murder over a period of time and removed from the streets in an effort to prevent crime.”
Responding to a previous query about the relationship between the police and community safety groups not aligned to the CPF structures, (‘Stay within the law, say police as residents tackle neighbourhood crime ’– TOTT 8/2/2024, p2), McCarthy said at the time:
“The Community Police Forum is a legal community structure established in terms of Section 221[2] of the Constitution of South Africa and Section 19 [1] of the South African Police Service Act, Act 68 of 1995 and is mandated to facilitate community/police relations within a specific precinct serving as the mouthpiece of the community with the police and vice versa on policing matters and other relevant safety issues.
“Members of the forum are elected during formal election processes and they get their mandate from the community to meet with police management on a monthly basis, discuss crime and service delivery related issues.
“The South African Police Service initiated the concept of Community in Blue Patrollers to maintain a structural approach in the fight against crime, in partnership with the community [anticrime groups].
“Neighbourhood watches and patrol groups are being registered and screened to make sure patrollers have no criminal records or pending cases and have to sign a code of conduct.
“Through Sector Policing another platform is created for police to meet with communities in a smaller more manageable area of a precinct.
“A sector manager [SAPS member] will be appointed to establish a Sector Crime Forum and address the root causes of crime.
“The South African Police Service has created different platforms for communication with members of the community.
“The organisation aims to encourage community members to help fight crime through their local Community Police Forum, and Youth Desk in their station area.
“When the SAPS interacts with ‘anti-crime groups’ that are not aligned to their local CPF, this is done to educate them about the criminal laws and ways of reporting crime.
“This is also to encourage them to never become vigilantes and take the law into their own hands which could lead to them being criminals.”