Community Solutions

By Laea Medley

Liziwe Gqotholo, a mother in the Vukani Location of Grahamstown, works at a local school and attends church. She welcomes us into her small garden, where children water the garden and eagerly wave to us, to talk to us about crime in her community, and her role on the Community Policing Forum (CPF).

“If you live in this community, you must get involved”, said Gqotholo. This was her reason for volunteering to be a member of the Vukani CPF, a group of about 20 people. Grahamstown was the first in South Africa to establish this forum, which is a partnership between the police and the community. Together with a sector manager, appointed by the SAPS, this group works to enhance visible policing in order to prevent crime in the area.

Once a month, the CPF gather information from the community, establishing which crime-related issues are currently at hand. They then hold a meeting at the local police station, where they discuss these issues, and try to find tangible solutions to them. Gqotholo is known in her community as a trustworthy member of the CPF, and she is approached with issues and requests for help, which she readily responds to. “If it is a case of domestic violence, we will intervene,” said Gqotholo. “We don’t take sides”. But communication between the community and the police is vital, as “if it is a murder, it is out of our control, so we will hand it over to the police,” she said.

The monthly meetings, according to Gqotholo, are attended by both concerned community members, and members of gangs. “People ask for the gangs to be removed from the community, but nothing has been done,” said Gqotholo. Meanwhile, members of the gangs attend the meetings in hopes to get “inside information”. “They don’t like the meetings taking place”, said Gqotholo, “and therefore the people who organise them”.

This then leads to the issue of misplaced authority in the area, with gang members claiming to be members of the CPF, and threatening community members who are not willing to listen to them. “We never know when the next murder will be”, said Gqotholo, “I don’t feel safe here”. As a result, many people do not attend the monthly meetings, as they don’t believe that anything can be done.

The community has a right to be secure from violence, and this is what the CPF, together with the police, aim to restore in Vukani. In order to do this, a “Crime Prevention Strategy”, published in 1996, is followed, enabling community policing and the prevention of corruption and of domestic violence.

The CPF is not the solution to crime, but it does, when run properly, reduce crime in the area, through visible policing, constant communication with the police, and constructive intervention into potentially violent situations. It is solely dependent on the cooperation and the willingness of community members to participate, and actively fight against crime. Gqotholo, while holding down a job and supporting her children, actively fights crime on behalf of her community. She is both approachable and firm, a mother who battles for the safety of her children, and of the wider Vukani area.