Rehana Rossouw
Do-it-yourself policing is spreading across the Cape Peninsula as communities organise themselves to do the tasks their understaffed police stations cannot.
The Mitchell’s Plain Neighbourhood Watch has 10 units in the sprawling dormitory town, with membership currently at 4 000 and climbing steadily. Its 400 active members patrol neighbourhoods in Mitchell’s Plain every weekend, some of them armed and ready for any situation.
The watch was launched in 1990, in response to the local police’s inability to deal with local crime. All the members of the neighbourhood watch are volunteers who purchase their own equipment, like torches and two-way radios. Members use their own cars for patrolling.
“The neighbourhood watch is a peace force. We prevent crime, and we protect and serve our community. We can’t wait any longer for the police to end crime in our area. We’ve taken responsibility for our own safety,” said neighbourhood watch vice-chairman Louis Swiegelaar.
“In many ways, we’re more effective than the police. The gang members don’t know all the members of the neighbourhood watch; it could be anyone in the street who’s watching them. We live in the area, we know the gangsters and, more importantly, we know how to talk to them.
“We’ve been able to broker peace between rival gangs in Mitchell’s Plain. The Sexy Boys and the School Boys in Rocklands have had a truce for two years after we got them together at a meeting. In Eastridge, we rounded up the Dixies after the community complained about burglaries and attacks on residents. Today, the Dixies are protecting the
Although Swiegelaar’s language is peppered with police-type words like “watch captain”, “commander”, “ranks” and “units”, he insists that the neighbourhood watch is not a vigilante group. Some members are armed when they’re out on patrol and the watch has used firearms on two occasions. Charges were brought against them but, to date there have been no convictions. Watch members have also been shot on two occasions.
Some members of the watch have joined the police reservists and now have added authority. They are used to search suspects and enter houses where they suspect a crime is being committed.
Swiegelaar says the watch does not interfere with police business. Most of the incidents they deal with during patrols involve drunkenness and family violence. “We don’t arrest people or beat them up. We talk to them and try to bring peace. During the weekends we probably spend most of our time sobering people up until they are able to go home
The Mitchell’s Plain Neighbourhood Watch is affiliated to the Western Cape Anti-Crime Forum and intends spearheading an initiative to launch an umbrella neighbourhood watch structure in Cape Town this year.
“These initiatives are important. Gangsters and other criminals manage to control areas by instilling fear in residents. We reverse that process by making the gangsters fear us. It’s the only way we can make our areas safe places for our children to grow and thrive,” Swiegelaar