Ndudi Anyim
To enhance the crime fighting techniques of operatives amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Eastern Cape Provincial Community Police Board has organised a two day meeting with stakeholders to brainstorm on new ideas.
According to the Chairperson of the board, Mr Velani Mbiza Golamany, although the board was negatively affected by the advent of the Covid 19 pandemic, it is slowly coming out of its safety net to pursue its core business of partnering with the South African Police Service in the fight against crime.
He said stakeholders deliberated on crime fighting mechanisms, a refined Community Policing Strategy and an enhanced programme of action for the year 2021/2022, as well as solicited support and participation of like-minded organizations in the fight against crime.
“ The resoundingly successful meeting was held at Eastern Cape Police Provincial Headquarters, Griffiths Mxenge Hall. It was attended by Chairpersons of the 17 erstwhile Cluster Boards, the Provincial Commissioner, Lt Gen Liziwe Ntshinga, Acting Deputy Commissioner: Policing, Brigadier Nompumelelo Majikijela, different provincial component heads, representatives from the House of Traditional Leaders, Junior Management Core (JMC), Men for Change and the Women’s Network, were all in attendance. ”
Also, Brigadier Kevin Moodley presented a crime overview of the past nine months. The statistics reflected a plausible decrease of 15.1% of crime in general in the province.
“ The overview also reflected concerning volumes of crime from the three major urban districts in the Province namely, OR Tambo, Buffalo City Metro Municipality and Nelson Mandela Metro Municipality. These three areas, collectively, accounted for 55.8% of the crime committed in the Province. Of this uncomfortable picture was an increase in rape and sexual offences with 57% of these allegedly committed on children, ”Moodley said.
He added that in crafting its strategy and programme the board put numerous remedies which would see government, other stakeholders and South African Police Service (SAPS), partner for immediate solutions.
“ Some of the resolutions taken during the two day gathering was the revival of Ilima Task Team in charge of visiting Police stations to inspect their functionality as expected by Community Police Board. Revival of the Police garage visits to inspect and assist in the challenges hampering speedy vehicles repairs.
“ Appreciating the extension of the term of the current Provincial Commissioner, Lt Gen Liziwe Ntshinga and committed to support her and her team to continue leading the stability in the fight against crime, ” he said.
Speaking, the Provincial Commissioner, applauded the Board for fine tuning their action plan and aligning it with the recently developed SAPS strategic plan. She encouraged the gathering to ensure the plan is elaborate but easy to understand and must be cascaded down to the districts and stations.
She also emphasised on the need to improve relations with local councillors and strategic partners to confront Gender Based Violence (GBV) collaboratively.