Safety

Project Nehemiah

Project Nehemiah aims at ensuring the safety, peace, prosperity and self-preservation of vulnerable people and minority groups in South Africa by contributing decisively to the effective curbing of crime. The project integrates different communities and safety structures to work together in curbing violent crimes and jointly pressurise Government to act on crime.

Project Nehemiah creates hope and trust in faith.

Government and other state organs like the SAPS are unable to protect our people sufficiently against crime – the recent Coligny tragedy is a good example. For this reason, Genl. Maj. Roland de Vries and AfriForum decided in October 2016 to develop and implement a community strategy in the fight against violent crime. It was decided to name the strategy Project Nehemiah, as Nehemiah had to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem to create hope and trust. This is exactly the reason for the fight against violent crime.

The project’s centre of gravity is the community itself, and AfriForum fulfils the coordination function between the different communities and structures.

Project Nehemiah has the following four objectives:

Objective 1: To establish an integrated operational ability that will effectively contribute to the curbing of violent crime in South Africa.

Objective 2: To establish a national community safety system (NCSS) in accordance with community policing legislation that will strategically direct and support the effective curbing of violent crime.

Objective 3: To create and ensure national awareness against violent crime by 1) obtaining greater, positive and active community involvement, and by 2) achieving Government and state departments like the SAPS’s active entry into the fight against crime, poverty and unemployment.

Objective 4: To recruit national and international support for the more effective curbing of violent crime in South Africa by private institutions as well as to spur Government on to better management of the country and the curbing of violent crimes.