Addressing social ills in the community
The Roodepoort Police and various CoJ stakeholders have made it their mission to combat serious issues plaguing the Roodepoort communities.
Sadly, we live in a society that is riddled with criminal activity, domestic violence, bullying and substance abuse. Many children, and even some adults, are unable to identify a lot of the bad things happening around them, and if they were, they either wouldn’t know how to handle the situation or prefer not to get involved.
The Roodepoort Police and their partners wanted to take steps to create awareness about these problems and find solutions to them. So on Friday, 24 January, Roodepoort Police members visited South Hills Combined School and the Davidsonville Recreation Centre to address the issues.
At the school in the Roodepoort CBD, the learners were taught about discipline, bullying, theft, school safety and drug awareness. Captain Juanita Yorke, Sergeant Juliet Mogale and Constable Shumikazi Mbuli (Roodepoort Police members specialising in communication, violence and social crime prevention respectively) addressed the learners about the issues, and provided solutions and safety mechanisms to address the problems.
Yorke said that by the end of the presentations, the learners had promised to report criminal activity and bullying, as well as be more respectful towards their parents and teachers.
Later in the day, at the Davidsonville Recreation Centre, they were met by a hall full of community members wanting to combat drug issues, among other problems, in their community. The officers were joined by representatives from Westview Clinic as well as various stakeholders and social workers from City of Johannesburg (CoJ) to cover the topics.
The social workers, police officers, and staff members from different CoJ departments held an interactive presentation with the Davidsonville residents, hoping to identify the problems in the community and find solutions.
After speeches from all the relevant parties and responses from the residents, everybody in attendance worked together to determine a way forward. With the help of the stakeholders and the Roodepoort Police, the Davidsonville community members are working together to resolve the issues they are experiencing and to make their homes safer.
After all the serious topics had been discussed and plans were put into place to resolve the issues, the attendees enjoyed a delicious lunch together.
