Who is the CPF?

By Robyn McCormick

On Wednesday the 14th October, the police called a community Imbizo in Luvuyo Hall, in Fingo Village. The matters for discussion revolved around defining sector policing, the Justice System and detectives to the community. However, the ever-important question of the identity and efficiency of the Community Policing Forum (CPF) members were not on the agenda.


The well-attended meeting was chaired by Mr Palisi, head of the CPF. Ironically, the members of the CPF were not introduced to the attending community members, and the majority of those in attendance left the meeting before its conclusion.

The mayor of Grahamstown, gave the meeting some authority. He drew attention to the fact that service delivery issues, such as the lack of lights in Vukani, have a great deal of impact on the levels of crime in the community. Unforunately however, he arrived late for the meeting and left immediately after he had spoken.

Palisi seemed reluctant to provide solutions to the lack of lights, which the residents have identified as a gateway for crime after dark. Palisi first stated that the community “can’t take it for granted that someone will fix the lights”, saying instead that “the community should take [the] issue [up] with the Ward Councillor.” He the contradicted himself, saying that the community did have enough lights, and insisted that the complaints were unfounded in the face of the community’s loud complaints. “He is lying,” stated one woman, “we do not have enough lights.”

On a new note, Palisi spoke of how he intended to start street patrols, whose job it would be to “make sure that children are studying at home after school, that every house has food parcels delivered by the government, and that people have a permit to live in this area.” Community members felt that the meeting focused too much on service delivery and not on the issue they were most concerned about: crime.

“I am lost”, said Michael Nikelo. “I thought we were going to talk about the CPF and crime, and now we are talking about food parcel delivery and street lights! You say on the meeting agenda you want a way forward, but no-one is giving one!”

Another community member, Mr. Nkabalaza, expressed concern over the taverns in the areas. He said that the police needed to make strict rules regarding tavern hours to prevent alcohol-related crimes. “They have community meetings in taverns, but this causes more drinking. There is no order. When do people close their taverns? People are drunk at seven in the morning!”

The community also raised concerns over vigilante violence being taken due to the lack of visible authorities. Members of the CPF are often criminals or are corrupt themselves, and so abuse their authority.

Despite our best attempts to question the police and bring them to task on their inaction, they continued to brush us off without providing answers. The CPF was still not introduced to the community, despite pleas in the meetings for them to be more actively involved in chairing such meetings . Eventually, Superintendent Du Plooy gave some report on police activities, saying “We have met with community leadership and deployed lots of manpower to the area. We have made quite a number of arrests, and will continue to increase visibility in the areas, and we are thinking of increasing community volunteers for crime protection, as well as establishing a mobile reporting unit in a public space; we just need volunteers to patrol it. The goal of the police is to improve response, accessibility and service.”

Despite the CPF volunteering to be more actively involved, and Du Plooy asking them for help, the meeting unfortunately concluded without reaching a resolution. Let’s hope that this time, the police deliver on their promises.