10 November 2016
The Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster held a successful Imbizo event in the Phillipi and Nyanga communities in the Western Cape on Wednesday, 09 September 2016. The Imbizo was held under the theme “Together we move South Africa forward: “Our future – make it work“. The National Development Plan (NDP) is a long term vision and plan, it serves as a blueprint for the work that needs to be done to achieve a safer and more secure South Africa for all.
The main purpose of the Imbizo, led by the Deputy Ministers of Police, Maggie Sotyu, and State Security, Ellen Molekane, was to report back to the community on promises made by the JCPS Cluster during a previous visit to the area. The Deputy Ministers, accompanied by senior officials from JCPS Cluster departments, kick-started the Imbizo by taking to the streets of Phillip on a walkabout of the Marikana squatter settlement in Phillipi. Residents of the Marikana community welcomed the visit by government and took the opportunity to express their concerns with the general state of crime in the area. They raised issues such as poor illumination in the area at night and requested greater metro police visibility.
The next leg of the visit was held at the Nyanga Stadium where feedback was provided to community members on concerns and requests made to government during a JCPS Cluster outreach event to the area in August 2015. In his welcoming address, Acting National Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Kgomotso Phahlane said “The Cluster was grateful to have an opportunity to feedback to the community about the progress that government has made in dealing with their concerns expressed at the last engagement.” Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Khombinkosi Elvis Jula proceeded to provide detailed feedback to the residents on the issues they had raised previously.
The following are amongst the highlights raised by Lt General Jula:
Whereas Nyanga residents had requested a mobile police station in the Browns Farm areas, government has provided a fully-fledged satellite police station. A satellite police station provides significantly more services than a mobile services. The Browns Farm satellite police station provides 24-hours service that enables the police to respond quickly to complaints and cases of crimes in the area.
- The Nyanga Cluster received an allocation of an additional 41 police members that commenced with duties on 08 August 2016.
- 101 stabilisation members from around the country have been deployed at the Nyanga Cluster since June 2016 to curb crime in the area.
- A total of 5 509 crime fighting operations have been implemented in the area since August 2015 yielding a total of 23 650 arrests.
- 3 163 crime awareness campaigns were conducted in the area to educate the community about ways to prevent and report crimes.
- 385 firearms and 3 207 rounds of ammunition were confiscated and removed from the streets during the crime fighting operations.
- Over 68 980.225 litres of liquor were confiscated from illegal outlets in the area.
Lt General Jula also raised a number of challenges that delay police response times to complaints about crime in the Nyanga Cluster including: high population density, poor infrastructure, poor illumination, no house numbering.
In her remarks, Deputy Minister Sotju said the government had considered it important to come back to Nyanga to give feedback to the community. She said while not all challenges in the area had not been fully resolved, there has been remarkable progress made and government remains committed to dealing with the remaining issues. In response to calls for the JCPS Cluster to deal with drugs and gangsterism in the Mitchells Plain area, Deputy Minister Sotyu committed that she would see to it that the Cluster visited the area in the near future.
Government calls on community members to actively participate in building an ideal South Africa of 2030 and commit as SA citizen to play their part.
Follow @GovernmentZA on twitter for updates, the official hashtag for the campaign is #ImbizoWeek.
Enquiries:
Mr Donald Liphoko
Cell: 082 901 0766
Issued by Government Communications and Information Systems