The Kuils River Community Police Forum (CPF) Sector 3 sub-forum held a public meeting at Kalkfontein Primary School on Thursday August 24, but only three of its 10 executive members attended.
According to the forum’s constitution, a meeting needs more than five executive members before decisions can be taken. This is the third time in a row that there were not enough executive members to get a quorum so the few who did attend decided to call an urgent executive meeting to address that.
According to the forum’s constitution, executive members who miss more than three consecutive meetings can be removed from their seat.
But it was not only the executive who made a poor showing: only eight residents attended the meeting, and five of them belonged to the neighbourhood watch.
The purpose of the meeting was to hear residents’ concerns about crime, build relations and to give the community feedback about anti-crime and community-building initiatives in the area.
According to the station’s new commander, Colonel Jayce Naidoo, the area’s biggest challenges are coming out of Kalkfontein.
“Not only are there crime problems like gangsterism and drugs in Kalkfontein but there are social problems as well,” he said.
To tackle the problem holistically, he wants to meet with the provincial Department of Social Development, Metro police, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), ward councillors and security companies.
“We want to meet with them so that we can look at interventions. If security vans are standing on one spot, we can ask him to go to a hot spot area,” he said.
The station also wants CCTV cameras in the area and Prasa to fix the broken fencing along the railway line.
“People are using the gaps in the fence to take short cuts and then getting mugged and robbed there,” Colonel Naidoo said.
However, these interventions cannot take place until the sector forum is running efficiently and the community is engaging with them.
The executive members who attended the Thursday’s meeting discussed ways in which they could get the community to attend the sub-forum meetings.
The forum’s spokeswoman Marie Theunissen said the meeting had been advertised in the newspapers, by flyers and by word of mouth so the attendance was not because of a lack of notice but a lack of motivation.
She said many factors affected this, such as fear of coming out that night and the lack of faith in the police.
CPF liaison officer Winston Davids said the community had many concerns and that was why the public meeting had been called.
“This is the place for them to bring their concerns. It’s no use if they complain among themselves in the community,” he said.
