The Norwood Community Police Forum (NCPF), is a community-based organisation that works closely with community stakeholders, and it was created to combat safety and security issues in Norwood, Orange Grove, and surrounding areas. The organisation addresses issues such as public drinking, drugs, community clean-ups,Gender-Based Violence, homelessness, and transient people as well as elders and youth community. The forum does a fantastic job of creating a link between the community and the police so that there is cooperation from both sides.
Cebi Ngqinambi, the Chairperson of Sector 4 and Deputy Chair of Norwood Community Police Forum has been with the organisation for four years and states that this organisation has definitely helped restore some level of safety and security. The police station they have been working with is the Norwood Police Station. However, in the past, there had been some issues with cooperation between the police station and NCPF because the station had been operating under acting station commanders for more than five years and that resulted in extreme instability.
“We have cold cases and people are not informed as to what is happening. We had instances where security companies responded faster that the police. However, we are excited about the new commander (Colonel Logan Govender). He has vast experience in the police force, and we are already seeing some improvements,”Ngqinambi states.
Colonel Logan Govender has over 37 years of experience, he has worked at the Hillbrow Police Station as well as in the Hillbrow cluster for 27 years. “When I was doing strategic management, I was involved with Norwood’s station by assisting them with their performance, so I am aware of the existing problems the station faces,” explains Colonel Govender.
Ngqinambi states that public drinking is one of the biggest problems in Orange Grove, Louis Botha. The number of people (mostly men) increases by the day. It has gotten to the point where school learners are terrified of walking on the pavement due to the drinkers blocking their way. One of the community members stated that her 14-year-old daughter got approached by older men as she was walking down Louis Botha.
“Those men have become a nuisance to the public, I don’t send my son to the shops anymore because I am worried about what those drunk men will do. It is bad to the extent that we have accepted that there is a no-go block on Louis Botha. The police have made some arrests, but those men keep on coming back. During our clean- ups, those men go as far as urinating in front of everyone, including children,” Ngqinambi says.
Thabang, Mo, and Sbusiso helping out during the clean-ups at Orange Grove
Wendy Sithole, the Orange Grove ward committee for environment
Furthermore, Ngqinambi explains how Social Development needs to come to the party with assisting the common issue- homeless people. Orange Grove has been experiencing an influx of homeless people and unfortunately, the community is not trained to deal with some of these social issues. Most of the problems start as social issues and gradually move on to be classified as crime issues.
“Social development needs to assist with shelters and counselling as well as rehabilitation services. As a result of hunger and lack of support, some of the homeless people resort to desperate measures to survive. We definitely help to combat this,” Ngqinambi says.
The Chairperson of the precinct, Wayne Preston has been in the position for two years and emphasises how a lot of contact crime such as armed robberies occur on the on-and-off raps in Norwood and surrounding areas. He has ensured that there are more police officers, NCPF as well as security company members patrolling those hot spots. This has resulted in the minimisation of such crimes in the past three months. Preston also highlighted the increasing number of house invasions in the Highlands North and Orange Grove, with Orange Grove being in a worse
position.
“We work in conjunction with security companies and the police force on various groups. We get emergency calls on a daily basis, for instance, we get accident scene calls. We also get calls for suspicious people and break-ins, or whatever the case may be. The community members reach out to us on various WhatsApp groups. However, to ensure the safety of members responding to emergency calls, the police are always present. We tend not to respond to situations such as hijackings and armed robberies, we let the police handle that, but should they need our help, we’ll do our best where we can such as closing off the scene and keeping people away,” Chairperson Preston explains.
The forum has done the best it can to be the eyes and ears of the police as it is impossible for them to be everywhere at the time. Wayne Preston encourages the community to be involved with the NCPF as it greatly benefits them.
From left to right: Brent Hicock, Lisa Lowenthal, Bev Finger, Annie Hodes, Sergeant Gumi Tshikoro, Brian Whitney, and Tristan Israelson in support of the NCPF awareness campaign to encourage community members to volunteer.
People who would like to Join NCPF should contact either Wayne Preston or the Secretary, they then have to go through a process where the police screen their fingerprints and ensure that they don’t have any prior convictions. Once they have been cleared and the commander and chairman are satisfied, the community member will then be introduced to the forum and be exposed to various sectors within the forum.
Norwood NCPF at Pick n Pay Hyper to create awareness of what they do and discuss issues such as safety and security community clean-ups, among other issues.