North West MEC for Human Settlements, Public Safety and Liaison, Ms Desbo Mohono has urged police and the Justice Crime Prevention and Security Cluster stakeholders to hit hard at criminals without giving them any breathing space so that they get the unequivocal message that their escapades and honeymoon in communities is over.
MEC Mohono in delivering her keynote address at the opening of the two-days Bojanala Platinum Crime Prevention Summit in Rustenburg said that the summit is about stacking the fire to turn the heat on criminals in all communities in the district so that they feel the pinch and the sting.
Mohono emphatically declared that it is time to turn the heat on criminals in the Bojanala Platinum District and more specifically to turn the Brits Cluster which comprises of Hartbeespoortdam, Brits, Letlhabile, Mooinooi, Bethanie, Jericho and Assen into a hot furnace and a no- criminals zone.
The Brits Cluster recorded an increase of all categories of crime, contact crimes and property related crimes during the 2009/10 financial year except murder which decreased by 8%. Stock-theft increased by 38%, theft out of motor vehicle by 27% whilst all robberies increased by 11% in the cluster.
“Until elderly farmers, women and children feel safer to enjoy an evening walk or the night gazing at stars from their patio without high walls and electrical fences without the fear of their own shadows, none of us are free as crime denies us to enjoy our freedom to its fullest,” said the MEC.
She added that crime, especially serious and violent crime, threatens our value system as a society including the sanctity of life and all freedoms that define our democratic order.
She further said that crime prevention summits to other three districts in the province that would be rolled outshould send a clear message to criminals in the district and throughout the province that the Justice Crime Prevention and Security Clusterwill be going after criminals with everything they’ve got. Mohono concluded that the cluster and stakeholders are united, smarter and better coordinated to triumph.
The objective of the summit is to integrate crime prevention strategies and develop a Crime Prevention Programme of Action in order to intensify the onslaught against crime in the Rustenburg, Brits and Mmakau Policing Clusters.
It is further aimed at creating safe and secure communities, restoring investor confidence and to identify problem areas as well as concretise strategies to deal with such problems.
Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele
Tel: 018 391 0420
Cell: 083 629 1987
E-mail: LKgwele@nwpg.gov.za
Turn the heat on criminals urges North West MEC Mohono
Province
