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AfriForum’s division for community safety set up its first regional safety network this week. This is the first of several networks of its kind that will be established nationwide this year. This regional safety network is based in the Southern Cape and will follow an integrated approach to safety and cooperation over an area of ​​nearly 12 000 km2 between AfriForum’s neighbourhood and farm watches in George, Oudtshoorn, Mossel Bay, and Knysna.

Closer cooperation between the branches in this network will help ensure that safety issues can be addressed over a wider area.

During the year, AfriForum will establish many more similar safety networks for the neighbourhood watches to function more effectively at a regional and national level. AfriForum currently has 172 neighbourhood and farm watch structures nationwide.

According to Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum’s chief spokesperson for community safety, the establishment of AfriForum’s regional safety networks has significant benefits for the communities they serve. “Through an effective safety network, criminal activities can be combated in a larger area. Likewise, information, such as that collected using security cameras along roads, can be shared more widely, and the movement of suspects between areas can be monitored much better. In addition, crime trends can also be identified and analysed more accurately to determine vulnerability and we will be able to perform better risk analyses,” says Broodryk.

In addition, the expansion of local radio networks will also be done as part of the establishment of regional safety networks to enable members who form part of these networks to communicate over longer distances. AfriForum will set up radio repeaters in certain areas to improve communication between regional safety networks and the AfriForum control rooms and branches nationwide.

“We can no longer simply sit back and watch by as our communities suffer under the wave of crime in this country. It is now time for more community members to get involved in neighbourhood watch structures,” Broodryk concludes.

Join your nearest AfriForum neighbourhood watch at www.afriforum.co.za/en/what-do-we-do/neighbourhood-watches/.

Submitted by AfriForum