CPF heads to Zandspruit

Saturday 7 September was an historic day for Zandspruit residents, because on this day a new crime-fighting strategy was introduced into the area.

With the help of the Honeydew SAPS, the Department of Community Safety and the Sector 4 CPF sub forum, elected representatives had an opportunity to learn what a CPF is and why it is a necessary community presence.

The event was held at Monash University and transport for residents was arranged by the Honeydew SAPS.

The day was fully dedicated to orientating residents about the formation of the CPF.

The Department of Community Safety’s James Khumalo said, “It’s always important to orientate residents with anything new that you introduce to them. Residents need to understand their roles and responsibilities so they don’t end up politicising issues”.

Khumalo described Zandspruit as being distanced and at times difficult to police it as it needs a different approach to other sectors.

Residents learnt how street committees, block committees and safety ambassadors all correlate with the CPF.

Obert Mlauzi, chairperson of Sector 4 CPF sub forum, says it is about time Zandspruit had its own CPF. “Zandspruit has been left neglected for a long time.” He said when utilised accordingly, CPFs are a great way of preventing and monitoring crime. “As the CPF, we always come up with plans and projects that prevent crime in our communities and we always have the police on our side to help us. Zandspruit has been a problem when it comes to crime. We always hear of the most disturbing criminal activities from Zandpruit, murders, rapes and all sorts of things,” Mlauzi said.

Bonga Dlamini, a community member attending the orientation, said he was happy and looked forward to launching a CPF in his community. “This will bring discipline into our area and the most encouraging thing is that we have our authorities [SAPS] who want to help us. Criminals have no chance now, we are taking ownership of our area again. We’ve been living in fear and scared to walk on the streets at certain hours.”

Emcee for the day, Pastor Sipho Magagula who runs a church in Zandspruit, emphasised to those in attendance not to ruin a good crime combating initiative that the Honeydew SAPS is introducing to them. “Please don’t take advantage and try to manipulate this new system”, said Magagula.

For now, residents have chosen their street and block watch committee members; they will later elect their CPF chairperson and secretary. All elected community members were finger printed. “We did this to see if any of them are wanted criminals, or have criminal records. We need to know who we are dealing with”, said Warrant Officer Karen Jacobs.