Crime and Security approaching 2010

[HoustonTXUSA]

I know we have alot of thread with rosie pictures of South Africa but there is another issue that must not be ignored and that is the crime in SA. I want you guys to post news on how the visitors will be safe ahead of the 2010 Fifa WC and how SA can become an even better country with top class security like the Western World. This is not meant to be a negative thread but the level of crime in SA is very high and has the join Colombia as the murder capital of the World.

[HoustonTXUSA]

South Africa: Robbers Kill Nigerian Toddler in South Africa


This Day (Lagos)

April 14, 2007
Posted to the web April 14, 2007

Lagos

A holiday trip to South Africa by a Nigerian woman and her daughter ended in tragedy when armed robbers shot dead her two-year-old daughter in Johannesburg on Thursday. Nkechi Obiekwe and baby Tsahai were sleeping at their guest house when two armed robbers opened the door to her bedroom and demanded her laptop, cellphone and money. She added that she was frightened and gave the robbers her money.

"Then I turned around looking for a cellphone. A gunshot went off. I never thought they were killing my baby. When I turned to hand them the cellphone, I saw blood. I ran to Tsahai. She was struggling to breathe. She had been fast asleep when the robbers shot her in the head," Obiekwe told said.


She said that the robbers came back and demanded for more money. "I said you have already killed my baby why do you want my money." Police arrived at the scene about 40 minutes later. Obiekwe, who works for the Nigerian Communications Commission, arrived in South Africa on Tuesday and planned to return to Nigeria on Sunday


She said before Tsahai was born she had tried for 11 years to get pregnant, and had to seek for medical help. "It took me so many years to conceive my baby, my only child. She was all I had,",Obiekwe said in tears.

"South Africa is not safe at all. What can a baby do to stop a robbery in progress," said Emeka Arum, one of the shocked Nigerians who came to sympathise with Obiekwe.

Johannesburg police spokesperson Eugene Opperman said the robbers had forced open a window and climbed through burglar bars adding that investigation has begun into the incident.

[HoustonTXUSA]

Over a cellphone, laptop and some few cash????? this is ridiculous.....and ignorant. Security shouldnt be top notch just for the world cup but for years and years to come.

[80SAFRIKAN]

My brother , I think your in the wrong place.
I know your not trying to be negative however.....

This is a haven for people who want positive news on South Africa....

You are obviously very proud to be living in America now, not even sure if your South African.... Well the people here are very proud to be South African and we like to focus on positive news..... There are so many other sites out there and this thread you started has been done to death.....
If you want to discuss crime i suggest you join one of those sites...

This site is like a breath of fresh air, lets keep it that way !




cya in Texas boet....

[HirakataShi]

Originally Posted by 80SAFRIKAN

My brother , I think your in the wrong place.
I know your not trying to be negative however.....

This is a haven for people who want positive news on South Africa....

You are obviously very proud to be living in America now, not even sure if your South African.... Well the people here are very proud to be South African and we like to focus on positive news..... There are so many other sites out there and this thread you started has been done to death.....
If you want to discuss crime i suggest you join one of those sites...

This site is like a breath of fresh air, lets keep it that way !




cya in Texas boet....

Great to see that you are still here posting messages. I wish more YouTube sane South Africans would come over to this site.

[HoustonTXUSA]

Originally Posted by 80SAFRIKAN

My brother , I think your in the wrong place.
I know your not trying to be negative however.....

This is a haven for people who want positive news on South Africa....

You are obviously very proud to be living in America now, not even sure if your South African.... Well the people here are very proud to be South African and we like to focus on positive news..... There are so many other sites out there and this thread you started has been done to death.....
If you want to discuss crime i suggest you join one of those sites...

This site is like a breath of fresh air, lets keep it that way !




cya in Texas boet....

This is not a negative thread.....this is a thread about security in south africa for the World Cup. Post news about the security for the world cup just like u post news about the stadiums.

[Durbsboi]

More better suited for the Shabeen, Thryve, if you can do the honor's please

[Jakes1]

Any thread like this will be stooped in controversy. Chat away if you must, but what will the goal of such a discussion be?

[mike2005]

wow so you pick a story from the most dangerous city in the country. So if I look at news from Detroit or LA I wont find any such stories about your country?!!!

Im not saying there is no crime here or that Im not really annoyed by the crime but I suggest you read the Financial Mail on April 6th for a very good article about how we can get on top of crime and how in some areas the tide is being turned.

[mike2005]

In it together



By Peter Honey

With little political leadership, a spontaneous revolution in policing and security is burgeoning. It is already having dramatic effects in specific areas. We assess the lessons for the rest of SA.



The drug merchant, scruffy and cocky with the brashness of youth, crossed the street and had almost reached the idling car when he spotted the two uniformed policemen in the back seat. His expression turned from expectation to shock and he veered away and scurried out of sight around the corner, where his buddies had long since melted away.


The man in the driver's seat gave a grim chuckle. "Must be a new boy; everybody else knows this car. They wouldn't try selling to me."


The speaker was Raymond Mthenjwa, senior prosecutor in the Randburg magistrate's court. It was a mild autumn evening in Windsor East, a small suburb crammed with low-rise flats in northwestern Johannesburg.


LINKED DOCUMENTS - Click on each title for document

The Social Economy of organized Crime

Targeting Organised Crime - A Systems Approach

Trends in Shopping Centre Violent Incidents - January 2007



Because many of the suburb's 305 tenement blocks are for rent only, they have attracted thousands of foreign migrants, many of them desperate illegal Zimbabweans and Nigerians running the hard-drug rackets. There is a fair smattering of SA dagga dealers, too, lounging about the side streets and the central shopping area, which exudes the seedy Afropolitanism of a mini-Hillbrow.


Mthenjwa and his police colleagues had driven here to show a visitor the locale of a rather special anti crime initiative they are running for the national prosecuting authority (NPA) - one of nine pilots in a countrywide experiment in what is called "community prosecuting". It has been carried out for several years, with some success, in the US and parts of Europe.


The principle is ingenious, as crime analyst Martin Schönteich explains: prosecutors have a unique perspective on crime, since they represent the only part of the criminal justice system that makes contact with every other part. By engaging with the communities they serve, prosecutors are well placed to advise police and community activists on how to investigate and build winnable cases, and at the same time learn what the communities' priorities are, who the key criminals are and what cases to fast-track through the courts.


"The whole idea is for prosecutors to engage and communicate more broadly with communities," says KwaZulu Natal prosecutions director Shamila Batohi, national co-ordinator of the community prosecuting project.


CLICK ON GRAPHIC FOR ENLARGEMENT

The Windsor East pilot is one of the most successful. It started in April 2006 and is scheduled for completion in November this year, after which it will probably expand to neighbouring suburbs and eventually other priority crime areas of Johannesburg.


The pilot's results so far are promising. Mthenjwa says nearly 2 000 illegals have been deported from this small, 4 km² neighbourhood in the past 10 months; community pressure has intensified on errant flat owners, and on landlords to convert their complexes to sectional title ownership and evict squatters; problem tenements are being auctioned under threat of asset forfeiture for refusal; and in February police conducted the first intelligence-driven arrests of drug dealers, including important distributors. The cases are already enrolled for trial.


However, the deportation issue is problematic from both a human rights and a practical perspective : many deportees are Zimbabweans fleeing a broken economy and many, if not most, are back in SA within days. But Windsor East community activists say many return to Windsor only to collect their goods and move elsewhere.


"When we started back in 2000, Windsor was completely over run with migrants and drug dealers," says Windsor Action Group representative Annetjie Grimsdell. "We used to have upwards of 20-27 burglaries a month. Now we might have three or four. We had 118 flat blocks that needed constant police raiding ; now we're down to 13, and two of those are being sold this month."


Partnership is the vital ingredient, says Mthenjwa. "When I got here I was careful not to try to take ownership of the initiatives that were already under way.


"I just linked with the community groups, and together we listed our priorities - drug dealing, illegals, armed robberies and noise from taverns and pubs in the district. Then we asked the police to take charge of other crime prevention strategies."


The project has also formed linkages with other state and municipal departments - immigration, welfare, health and the police organised crime unit. Several of these join up with the Linden police on raids into Windsor, with community groups and beat cops who are able to provide extensive intelligence on drug merchants and complicit traders.


Anyone who still thinks of Alexandra as it was in the late 1980s would be astonished to see it now.


Alexandra was the fetid slum on the edge of Sandton where outsiders, policemen especially, feared to tread; scene of the 1986 "six-day war", when township militia exchanged gunfire with paramilitary police and stone-wielding youths burned tyre-barricades in the rutted, sewage-streaked streets and dug trenches to trap the wheels of police Casspirs.


After apartheid, it was left to the robbers, murderers and other violent misfits to plunder and use as a hideout for hijacked cars, scrap dealer chop-shops and other stolen booty.


Nobody would pretend that the overcrowded, vibey, gritty Alex of today doesn't still qualify as a slum, even though its streets are tarred. But, last month, for the third year running, Alex police station emerged as Johannesburg's best performer - top of the city's 21 stations in policing yardsticks such as crime reduction, management and investigation.


The murder rate has dropped from six or seven cases in a weekend to fewer than six a month; some weekends there are none at all. The once notorious London Road, which used to register 30-40 hijackings a month, now has two or three, and there are no more vehicle chop shops. Domestic assault, though, remains a central, malignant theme, largely due to the overcrowding - an estimated 550 000 people in an area of less than 10 km².


Station commissioner Theko Pharasi won't give crime statistics - the FM got them elsewhere, because he's restrained by national headquarters' muzzle on stats - but he does say that virtually all crimes have dropped over the three years he has been there.


The achievement is overwhelmingly due to Alex's well-oiled police-community partnerships. That has been difficult to achieve because of the township's social complexity. Refer to the detailed scheme of the Alexandra Social Crime Prevention Partnership Policing. Click here for the document.


It's safe to say that there is virtually no social activity in Alex - whether business, tavern, school or hostel, to name a few - that isn't touched in some way by the community policing initiative.


When alcohol-related crimes start ticking up, the taverners' forum steps in and gets shebeens to close earlier for a few nights; the religious forum arranges regular "cops 'n priests" prayer meetings; each of the township's 22 schools has an adopt-a-cop project and attends the school policing forum to address issues such as teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and truancy.


When the FM visited the Alex police station last Friday - the old station on the edge of town has shut down and moved to a large, brick complex adjacent to the central taxi rank - the atmosphere was festive. Schoolchildren were singing and performing back-to-school plays, a four-piece band kept up the entertainment and community volunteers were handing out food parcels. It was Alex's link-up with the simultaneous launch in Soweto of Gauteng's new community-police partnership campaign, a brainchild of community safety MEC Firoz Cachalia.


Aside from the community partnerships, swift response is essential to Alex's policing success. The station's crime office runs around the clock and every crime reported must receive immediate attention from whoever is on duty, says crime prevention head superintendent Tobie Terblanche. "We all work as a team - there is no waiting for the detectives or anyone else to come on duty before we respond," he says. "It must be as soon as possible."


Swift response can be difficult, since many houses aren't numbered, and the shantytown is a warren of tunnels and unidentified structures.


Social crimes - mainly domestic violence and assaults - are Alex's biggest bugbear and probably the most difficult to address from a purely policing perspective, since they require other state interventions too, for example from the welfare, education and health departments.


But Pharasi says the police can at least try to use their extensive community networks to ease tensions in backyard settlements, which may accommodate upwards of 20 people.


From a policing perspective, crime control is divided into six sectors, with residential areas patrolled day and night by police, residents or reservists. As a result, community crime reporting runs high.


"If somebody sees something strange or they notice an unidentified car parked in their yard (which could be a stolen or hijacked car being cooled off'), chances are they'll call us or tell the patrols," says Terblanche.


Patrol groups meet weekly to strategise and exchange information.


One sector contains the town's hostels, which are occupied almost exclusively by Zulu migrants. It has always been a politically sensitive zone and as a result this sector is not patrolled, but police maintain social discipline through contact with the indunas.


The police reserve provides not only extra manpower to the police, but a small income for the unemployed.


In addition, an extensive network of business donors and professional volunteers helps run several projects in and around the station, including the colourful victim support centre mostly for abused children. Centre co-ordinator Elizabeth Mokoena says Vodacom, Investec and Johncom are major sponsors, while civil society groups such as Adapt and Women & Men Against Child Abuse provide access to a doctor and two social workers. At least eight children receive counselling and therapy every day.


For all the good news, though, it would be foolish to regard Alex as an island apart from the high-crime environment around it. "Crime is like a balloon; you squeeze it and it moves to another area," says Alex community police forum chairman Thomas Sithole.


That's why police stations are now organised in clusters. Alex forms part of the cluster with neighbouring Bramley and Sandringham police precincts, which meets monthly to exchange information.


With the dissolution of the central police sexual offences unit, Alex police station has inherited its own sexual offences unit, with a commanding officer and four detectives, which Terblanche says has significantly improved the station's success rate. And if Bramley or Sandringham require specialist policing for a sexual offence, Alex's team is available.


If all this sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But there is no disputing that the police in Alexandra have gained the community's trust, and more importantly, its active participation in the battle against crime.


Cachalia's project to extend the lessons of Alex and Windsor East into community policing in the rest of the province, however, may not get the political backing it needs. The Take Charge project was launched in a symbolic, non partisan, populist ceremony at Kliptown, Soweto, last Friday. It emphasises continuous community mobilisation and policing partnerships across a broad provincial front and is precisely the kind of enterprise that national government should be projecting across the country.


But, in the absence of concerted energy by national leaders, projects like Take Charge will struggle for traction. Deputy safety & security minister Susan Shabangu, an invited dignitary, was the only national cabinet attendee at the Kliptown launch. National police commissioner Jackie Selebi was notable for his absence.


That speaks of a systemic problem in the battle against crime - it is being driven more by community leaders, on-the-ground prosecutors, provincial safety & security structures and local police. That is partly why the critical factor in successful crime-fighting initiatives has been an active community.


But what if the community itself is riven by factionalism?


Consider the case of Hout Bay.


It took the murder of a visiting cyclist to turn Hout Bay into one of the best-organised police-community partnerships in the country.


Housebreaking and robbery were, and still are, the worst crime problems of the town. Housebreaking was running at 20-25 a week at the time of the murder. Now the number is down to a quarter or a third of that.


The main secret of the success is swift community and police response to crime calls and routine neighbourhood patrols. The programme stems from strong, focused leadership, good organisation and close co-operation between volunteer networks, police and the two main private security companies.


Adding immediacy to the project is a walkie-talkie network linked to a full-time, staffed operations room that complements the regular police and security patrol networks.


It all started with the stabbing to death of Gerhard Vergeer, an Mpumalanga cyclist who had come to ride the Argus Pick 'n Pay cycle tour. In the early hours of race day in March 2005, Vergeer surprised two burglars, who turned into his killers.


Into the public outrage that followed stepped Capt Gerhard van den Bergh, recently appointed crime prevention police chief of Hout Bay, with a plan: neighbourhood watch.


"There was negativity everywhere; everybody was blaming everybody else. But all they needed was a plan," recalls Van den Bergh.


Complicating the resentment was racial tension, built on the belief by many in Hout Bay's white community that the main source of the crime was Imizamo Yethu, the mostly impoverished black settlement of 20 000 mushrooming in the middle of the community, and the nearby coloured township of Hangberg.


But if violent crime was bad in white Hout Bay, it was several times worse in Imizamo Yethu and Hangberg, with murder, assault, rape and other liquor-related crimes the order of the day. Those communities, too, needed help.


"One of the cleverest things [Hout Bay] did was to embrace the black and coloured communities," says former Hout Bay resident Mike McCarthy. He has since moved across the mountain to Kalk Bay, where he and other community members are having a hard time motivating the local police station commander to help start a neighbourhood watch.


After securing the Hout Bay community's buy-in, Van den Bergh divided the community into 28 sectors, each with a volunteer sector leader. Imizamo Yethu created 12 sectors.


"Each sector decides what its priorities are, what it needs and how it should patrol," the police captain says. "My only duty as the police co-ordinator is to ensure the watch system doesn't go too far; [neighbourhood watches] are only the eyes and ears of the community; it's not a vigilante movement."


The two security companies also joined into the spirit of the project, one donating a laptop computer for co-ordination and the other the radio control room.


It's not a cheap system: the walkie-talkie radios cost about R1 600 each and the control room, accredited by telecom regulator Icasa, takes about R25 000 a month to maintain.


The biggest challenge for any volunteer programme is to maintain momentum. Even successful community policing operations sometimes run out of steam because people feel they no longer need to keep up the pressure.


"People get comfortable," says Van den Bergh. "But this thing is not a short-term solution; it's a way of life."


To maintain community interest, network leaders produce weekly crime reports. Van den Bergh says he provides only the information relevant to the watch system: housebreaking, robberies and thefts from motor vehicles. Murders, assaults and other social crimes are police-only business.


Another good spin-off from the neighbourhood watch system is that it frees the police to focus on other forms of crime, notably drug dealing, smuggling and crimes linked to shebeen and nightclub operations. As a result, Hout Bay police have been able to bring down the rate of assault and rapes.


Hout Bay's success has not gone unnoticed, especially in nearby communities such as Constantia, Observatory and Fish Hoek, which have absorbed some of Hout Bay's displaced crime and are now looking to start their own neighbourhood watches.


For some, the peculiarities of their crime problems may require different solutions. But the essential ingredients - leadership and cohesion - stay the same.


"Anything can be changed with the right attitude," says Van den Bergh. "When we started, I thought we had too many cultural differences in Hout Bay; it would not work. I was wrong; it does."


Hout Bay, Alexandra and Windsor East show the importance of community involvement, even though each area has discovered a unique response to crime that works for it. The tougher nut to crack is organised crime - the planned attacks seen in cash-in-transit heists and robberies at shopping centres. But even in such cases, unique solutions are being worked out. Here, too, communities are a critical ingredient.


Shopping centres have become fertile ground for armed robbers. Not only are their shops and restaurants robbery targets, but the crowded centres themselves enable robbers to pick out likely victims for attack after they leave - leading in some instances to home robberies.


Nearly one-third of the 56 violent crime incidents recorded at or linked to shopping centres in January were robberies of people who had left the centres, according to research by the joint shopping centre security initiative co-ordinated by Business Against Crime (BAC).

To see the full report click on:

Trends in Shopping Centre Violent Incidents - January 2007.
But now a focused security initiative has been launched to deal with the problem. It is being co-ordinated by crime analyst Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane on behalf of the SA Council of Shopping Centres, the SA Property Owners Association and the Consumer Goods Council of SA - and is part of a broader programme by BAC to broaden the range of commercial anticrime operations.


Gauteng centres recorded 52% of the robberies, with KwaZulu Natal (18%) and the Western Cape (12%) the next most robbery-prone.


The security initiative is based on the successful strategy of the SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), which cut bank robberies from over 260 a year in the early 2000s to under 50 last year. The banks did so by making it more difficult to rob banks and reducing the amount of cash available - thus raising the risk and lowering the reward.


But as bank robberies declined, robbers turned their attention to the more vulnerable cash movements between businesses and banks, shopping centres and petrol stations and, most recently, ATM machines. More than 80 ATMs have been blasted with explosives this year alone - more than the previous two years combined.


"Many of the retailers, particularly clothing stores, where margins are tight, feel that they shouldn't carry the costs, especially since they're insured against theft and robbery anyway. But they need to realise they have a responsibility to the community," says a security officer involved in the supermarket initiative, who does not want to be named.


"When we wanted to do an anti-shoplifting project at Cresta [a large centre in north western Johannesburg] they told us we would make the shoppers nervous," two policemen at the Linden police station told the FM.


They also said Cresta restaurants didn't want police around because most were employing illegal Zimbabwean migrants. "If we did a sweep [for illegals] there, the restaurants wouldn't have any waiters," they say.


The shopping centre security initiative has four key objectives. These are to:



Improve the physical security of the centres;


Beef up cash management practices;


Enhance co-operation between centres and the criminal justice system; and


Upgrade crime prevention technology and methods.

The initiative has begun compiling a best practice manual for shopping centres, tailoring initiatives to suit individual centre needs and profiles, since large malls have quite different security profiles from smaller neighbourhood centres.


Similar efforts are under way in other business sectors. For instance, the cash-in-transit (CIT) industry has already compiled a doctrine for a charter of minimum standards to improve the security of cash movements.


But many shopping centre owners are still unwilling to design quality risk-control measures into their centres, even in new developments, says Gert Potgieter, property risk control specialist of Pretoria-based MHD Management Services. "I was told flatly by the executive of a big property development company that security was a police responsibility," he says.


Irish-Qhobosheane says that as much as shopping centres are points of attack for criminals, they can be turned around to fight the criminals.


"This is not just a policing responsibility," she says. "Shopping centres need to improve their ability to recognise criminals and work with the criminal system."


The urgent need for crime fighting has eclipsed for the moment the issue of public privacy and civil rights protection. Last month's constitutional court ruling against the Asset Forfeiture Unit's seizure of an illegal gambler's assets, declaring the unit's action disproportionate to the crime, has added to the debate over citizen rights.


Irish-Qhobosheane acknowledges the rights dangers inherent in expanded surveillance and security checking, but says it needs not be aggressive.


"Racial profiling is not only difficult to do effectively, it's completely inappropriate in these circumstances," she says.


Communities can, and must, play a role in knocking back organised crime too.

For a detailed understanding of how organised crime works click on:

The Social Economy of organized Crime

One novel approach is the "systems" or "gravity" method of fighting organised crime, put forward by Sabric's GM for crime risk information, Ian Janse van Vuuren.


It involves careful observation of a criminal group and then using that intelligence to target its central figures in such a way as to disrupt the entire group's centre of gravity and hence its ability to operate.

For the complete monograph on the subject:

"Targeting organised crime - a systems approach", click here.
The successful efforts to deal with crime that we have chronicled here show that amid the web of despair there lie success stories. These provide lessons - communities are an essential ingredient - but also show that unique solutions have to be developed to confront specific problems faced by certain areas.


What still has to materialise is strong and cohesive national leadership to direct and sustain the community energies. That is why the safety & security ministry's current proposal to revamp and empower community police forums needs strong and swift support (see Q & A alongside).


Minister Charles Nqakula could find support for funding the drive from finance minister Trevor Manuel. In a speech to a national prosecuting authority conference last week, Manuel urged crime fighters in government to be more co-ordinated in their efforts and to involve communities, social workers, schools and local councillors.


"Only through partnerships (with community organisations such as churches, youth organisations and the business community) can we hold our law enforcement agencies accountable and direct their efforts in a firm and innovative way, taking into account the conditions at local level," Manuel said.


But it doesn't help that SA's top policeman, Selebi, remains under suspicion of involvement with organised crime - fuelled in part by his own defiant admission of friendship with recognised crime boss Glenn Agliotti. Political sensitivities within the ANC appear to be preventing government from suspending or at least disciplining Selebi while the Scorpions work to build a winnable case against Agliotti.


For all of the controversy around him, though, Selebi must be credited with one act of leadership that could encourage and empower community-level police partnerships: the restructuring of the police service to strengthen the skills base of police stations; a controversial step, but one that may yet prove more beneficial than debilitating.


Integration and cohesion of effort are also crucial to the fight against crime. And here government is gradually moving to break down the strategic barriers between departments within the criminal justice system, through such joint forums as the justice and security cluster. But it is at the operational level that more work needs to be done to bring state agencies into shared focus. This is another function in which communities can assist government - by drawing local health, welfare and justice officials together with police in joint planning sessions.


Meanwhile, criminals - organised networks in particular - continue to set the pace as they operate without time-consuming regulations or procedures. The only option available for law-abiding citizens is to organise as communities, and use and strengthen the instruments and expertise - notably the police and justice officers - available to them.

[HoustonTXUSA]

My point of this thread is not to single out south africa....but with the world cup looming....I just wanted a thread of security measures....There are bad news like this that happens in the u.s....in fact early this morning a gunman went into a university in virginia (virginia tech)....and killed 32 people and killed himself. I just want news on policing the world cup.

[HoustonTXUSA]

Jo'burg looking for more officers before 2010
April 16, 2007, 22:15

The Johannesburg metro police is embarking on a mission to recruit and train 500 new metro police officers every year until 2010.

The plan is to ensure that there are 4 000 officers by 2010, said Wayne Minnaar, a superintendent.

The new recruits would be expected to do basic training for six months and field training for a further six months. The criteria used to select an eligible candidate are a matric certificate or Grade 12 certificate, a valid driver's licence and no criminal record. After the basic course, individuals would be required to write a test.

The course would be advertised twice a year, in April and October. The people in the course would be paid R2 000 a month, and once qualified they would be entitled to a R4 600 stipend.

Thereafter the officers would be placed on a progression plan which increases annually. - Sapa

[Durbsboi]

I dont think ol Houston meant any harm by this thread, but anyway his BANNED .........AGAIN

[Tbite]

Is it that easy to get banned

[Jakes1]

Sjoe, he gets banned while little nixx runs amock? I don't think he deserved a ban. but anyhow - interesting times

[DennisRodman]

South Africa: Council Urged to Up Budget for Metro Cops





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Cape Argus (Cape Town)

April 13, 2007
Posted to the web April 13, 2007

Lindsay Dentlinger


The city's Metro Police force needs to expand considerably if it is to meet the demands of a growing city, but its operational budgetary allocation of R270 million for the 2007/08 financial year will make this impossible,

JP Smith, chairman of the council's safety and security committee, said yesterday he would have to lobby the council much harder for more resources in order to appoint more police officers, despite the R20m increase in the budget allocation.


"There is no way we can maintain the status quo. The budget must increase.

"We must grow the service and keep pace with the growth of the city, especially ahead of 2010," he said.

The force now has about 400 members.

In a draft operational plan for July 2007 to June 2008, presented to the committee yesterday, the metro police are to start operating in three independently run separate units, each with its own staff, budget and resources by July 1. These will be the traffic unit, law enforcement and rapid deployment (VIP security) units.

The city will soon advertise - first, internally - for people to run each unit.

"The rationale is that the focus on the three functional areas will not be lost but enhanced," Caesar Scullard of the city's human resources department told the committee.

Smith said he would like to see dedicated units within the metro police to deal with land invasions, taxi and public transport violations.

Motivating the city's integrated development plan (IDP) on Wednesday, mayor Helen Zille said the metro police operations had to be investigated to determine whether the city was reaping the benefits of the R500m it had ploughed into the force over the last year.

This is the metro police's fifth year in operation.

Yesterday Smith said he was "extremely impressed" by the new work-plan of the metro police that was put before the committee, saying it had covered virtually every base of enforcing law in the city.

Relevant Links

Southern Africa
South Africa



The document sets out the priorities and objectives of the force over the next year.

Among its goals is a campaign focusing on minor crimes and by-law offences that relate to anti-social behaviour, clamping down on: drunkenness, drinking in public, riotous behaviour, drunken driving and drug abuse.

Its traffic division plans a "no-nonsense" approach to-wards traffic offences.

[DennisRodman]

NO FEARS FOR WORLD CUP 2010

The murder of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer has raised concerns about security arrangements for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

There have been suggestions that Woolmer, who coached the Proteas from 1994 to 1999, was killed following his side's exit from the World Cup because he was about to reveal details of match-fixing.

There has since been speculation that crime, betting and even terrorism could scupper the showpiece tournament in three years, but top South African officials insist this will not happen.

Initial fears have been allayed by South African Police Commissioner Andre Pruis - the man in charge of World Cup security - who claims safety is "guaranteed" during the tournament.

Pruis, one of the senior figures involved in planning the 1995 Rugby World Cup and 2003 Cricket World Cup, told The Star newspaper there were big plans for the tournament.

These include a dedicated police station in each host city, surveillance planes and international police officers from each participating country.

Police have given themselves nine months to complete their operational plans, which have been in the pipeline for three years. To ensure the tournament runs smoothly, they are to start running simulator tests at specially-picked local games next year.

According to the report, they have also begun spending £42million on top of their annual budget, most of which will be used to buy equipment ranging from light aircraft to hundreds of kilometres of retractable fencing.

Every host city will have one dedicated police station, modified to accommodate separate holding cells, a courtroom for speedy judgements and a home affairs office for possible deportations.

Each stadium could have 64 or more public-order police officers on guard, with support from international police officers as well as guards and marshals from the local security industry.

"With such an event you import the world's problems into your country," Pruis told The Star. "But I am very positive and feel good about the operational plans and the commanders (who will manage the police units)."

Pruis added that the plans include counters for terrorism, which is seen as a growing threat.

"We are 100% on top of it," he assured.

The security team is considering buying four planes - with video cameras feeding live footage to ground officers - to watch over the World Cup from the skies.

Other equipment being bought includes mobile command centres, water cannon, crime-scene trailers, new armour for vehicles and new tools needed for the bomb squads.

According to Pruis, by 2010, 30,000 dedicated police officers will be deployed in host cities. To supplement the 45,000 reservists currently serving in the country, Pruis hopes for 50,000 more to be recruited by 2010.

Each stadium will have one or two mobile police centres, kitted out with hi-tech monitoring equipment and computer systems to, for example, run checks on people's identities.

International police officers from every playing country will wear their country's uniforms and will help communicate with visitors and spot dangerous situations.

Plans are also afoot to ban hooligans and unwanted visitors from the competition.

"We will tell them that they won't be allowed into South Africa," Pruis said.

[Durbsboi]

Ah welcome back gizzim

[DennisRodman]

Ty my Nizzle.....I guess i got banned cuz i went to the U.K forum and i got banned for having another name after i got banned lol. Haters....I think i will just stick to SA and U.S forum.

[Tbite]

Howz it going. What are your motives though. Are you just going creating hate threads, or do you simply feel they are important issues