Albert Fritz, the minister of community safety in the Western Cape, announced on Monday that the SAPS National Secretary indicated that neighborhood watches could resume their duties.
This comes after AfriForum wrote a letter to Bheki Cele, the Minister of Police, and constantly highlighted the importance of neighborhood, smallholding and farm guards in the media. “Other organizations and role players followed this example to create awareness,” says Ian Cameron, AfriForum’s Head of Community Safety. AfriForum’s petition to allow neighborhood, farm, and smallholding guards to resume their safety initiatives was signed by approximately 30,000 concerned people.
“AfriForum’s approximately 150 security structures nationwide will continue to safeguard their communities without hesitation,” Cameron adds. “AfriForum is ready to support structures in the fight against the possible spate of further crime that may arise due to the economic damage caused by the restriction.”
According to him, the neighborhood car network, which is 12 000 volunteers strong, will again fight crime in close cooperation with other law enforcement authorities. “They will now be able to secure their communities properly without regulations hampering resilience improvement efforts.
