AfriForum’s neighbourhood watches participated in a national patrol on Friday evenings, 6 April to promote visibility in various areas. The patrol was executed by six neighbourhood watches in the province in cooperation with various safety structures, including the SAPS.
In total, the six AfriForum neighbourhood watches that participated travelled almost 9 450 km in 75 vehicles between 18:00 and 6:00 the next morning. This comprised 116 patrollers in total, who worked 396 man-hours to safeguard their communities and areas. Only nine incidents occurred.
According to Jaco Grobbelaar, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for Limpopo, the patrol was a huge success. “It was wonderful to see that volunteers were prepared to give up so much of their free time to ensure that their communities are safer. We are noticing a clear decrease in criminal activities in areas where our neighbourhood watches are patrolling actively and efficiently.”
Grobbelaar hopes that the future will see more people and structures joining the initiative. “We will have a national patrol again later in the year, and I would like to see that communities take increasingly more self-responsibility for their safety by participating in such actions.”
You can help protect your area: Join your local AfriForum neighbourhood watch by sending an SMS with “Buurtwag” to 45340 (R1).