If safety and security in Wynberg is close to your heart, please diarise Monday 1 December. That’s when the Wynberg Sector 1 Neighbourhood Watch will take its first formal steps towards becoming an official body.
Background
Until recently, the neighbourhood watch (NW) has been the project of the WRRA’s very small community safety committee, but it soon became evident that it had to run as a completely separate organisation from the WRRA so that it could have the benefits of being formally registered.
As there was already an active Facebook group called ‘Wynberg – Sector 1 Community Neighbourhood Watch’, this has become the nucleus for forming the NW. (Sector 1 comprises Wynberg West, the area represented by the WRRA.)
Many people have already signed up for our envisaged patrols and street committees – thank you! – and will be contacted as soon as the NW has officially been established and registered.
What is the next step?
In order to formally constitute a Neighbourhood Watch Association for Sector a public meeting (an ‘Inaugural General Meeting’ or IGM) must be held, which is to occur:
- Date Monday December 1
- Venue SAPS Mess Hall at SAPS building in Church Street
- Time 7 pm
The way forward
1 Those present will sign an attendance register, elect a committee, adopt a constitution and get public input.
2 The newly elected committee will then apply to get the NW registered through the Wynberg Community Police Forum(CPF) and Wynberg SAPS.
3 Once the NW has been vetted and approved by SAPS, the CPF will inform the Western Cape Government’s Department of Community Safety (DOCS), who will capture the information on their database.
4 They will advise the CPF when this step has been achieved and the CPF will report back to the NW.
5 The NW can then submit their registration to the City of Cape Town’s Safety and Security directorate, headed by Cllr JP Smith.
6 Council is prepared to provide training to NW members and also equipment, such as radios and base stations, to registered NW’s – so it’s important for the NW to complete the process correctly.
– Written by Norman Jobson, WRRA community and safety committee