Albert Fritz, Minster of Community Safety in the Western Cape, announced today that the National Secretary of the SAPS had indicated that neighbourhood watches may once again resume their operations.
This follows AfriForum writing to Bheki Cele, Minister of Police, and continuously highlighting the importance of neighbourhood, farm and smallholding watches in the media. Other organisations and role-players followed suit to create awareness. AfriForum’s petition to allow neighbourhood, farm and smallholding watches to resume their safety initiatives was signed by about 30 000 concerned people.
“AfriForum’s almost 150 safety structures from across the country will continue to protect their communities without hesitation. AfriForum is ready to support structures in their fight against the possible upsurge in crime that may be brought about by the economic damage caused by the lockdown,” says Ian Cameron, AfriForum’s Head of Community Safety.
The neighbourhood watch network, which comprises 12 000 volunteers, will once again fight crime in close cooperation with other law-enforcing authorities. They will now be able to keep their communities safe without their defensibility improvement attempts being limited.