AfriForum’s national patrol shows visibility is key to crime prevention

The civil rights organisation AfriForum held a national patrol during the past weekend. About 3 000 members from 104 of the organisation’s neighbourhood and farm watches participated.

In total, 77 054 km were travelled with 1 859 vehicles and the patrol was completed in 10 842 man-hours. More than 100 incidents were successfully resolved.

Other participants in the national patrol included 206 safety institutions, among these the SAPS, private security firms, emergency services, traffic service, various community policing forums (CPFs) and tow-in services.

“A national visibility action such as this definitely benefits our communities, especially if one considers the number of incidents that we came across. The key to sustainable success, however, lies in the good cooperation between AfriForum branches and other local community safety institutions,” says Hillel Coetzer, AfriForum’s Regional Head for Community Safety in Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

“The purpose of AfriForum’s national patrol is to mobilise communities against crime and to improve visibility and cooperation between all core role-players in crime prevention on local as well as national level,” says David Olivier, AfriForum’s Regional Head for Community Safety in KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and North-West.

“National visibility project like this one is necessary to assist the SAPS in preventing and combatting crime. The community plays an integral role in this regard, as well as to accept responsibility for safety in their various environments,” says Johandré van Zyl, AfriForum’s Regional Head for Community Safety in Eastern, Northern and Western Cape.

Join your local AfriForum branch: SMS your name to 45353 (R1 per SMS).