Angella Johnson
Police in Ficksburg are proud of their latest crime-fighting weapon – a R46 00 0 aeroplane bought with funds raised by local people – almost as proud as they are of having beaten colleagues across the country to grab the coveted title
of best community police station for 1996.
The prize of R20 000 recognises the station’s commitment to encouraging commun ity participation in combating crime, and the light two-seater plane allows th e station more effective coverage of an area littered with sprawling farms.
Ficksburg, a picturesque town nestled between the mountains overlooking Lesoth o, is a busy border outpost where the horse-and-cart competes with the car for right of passage on roads which are pristine clean. The most prevalent crimes
are drunken assaults over weekends, a few desperate house-breakings – and cat
tle-rustling.
”The rustling is usually done by people coming across the border and stealing animals which are then taken back across the river into Lesotho territory, whe re we can’t go after them,” explained Captain Andr Claase.
”Fortunately, we have established good relations with our Lesotho colleagues w ho will snap into action with just a phone call from us, helping to cut the nu mber of such crimes by 43%.”
Claase cannot remember the last time the town had to deal with a serious crime like murder or armed robbery. There were a couple of arson attacks on farm sc
hools in August, but the culprit was snagged within a month. This is a town wh ere armed robberies do not involve guns, but knives or other weapons. There we re 25 such crimes last year, but only seven so far in 1996.
It is not unusual for days to go by without any crimes being reported. This al lows the town’s 162 South African Police Service (SAPS) members to concentrate on their ”bedside” manners with regular training sessions on how to handle
people in distress.
”We have managed to cut our overall crime figures by 6% with the assistance of our very active community police forum, and by actively involving ordinary ci
tizens in crime prevention,” said Claase. By adopting a scientific approach t o charting daily crimes and getting local people on their side, Fickburg polic e believe they can almost anticipate where the next outbreak will take place.
This is a town where police street patrols are commonplace and visitors are gr eeted with tea and sandwiches at the station.
Durban-born Claase likes the feel of a place where police are treated as frien ds, not foes. ”It’s lovely here. People are friendly and we have established g ood relations with every section of the community because we all know each oth er and it’s in our interest to keep the town safe.”
Crime in South Africa costs businesses approximately R31-billion a year. At pr esent levels it has a dramatic impact on the cost of services to the consumer, who ultimately bears the brunt of the costs of extra security.
Saambou Bank, recognising that the only way to combat crime effectively is to improve consultation between the SAPS and the communities it serves at local l evels, late last year introduced a R100 000 programme to encourage liaison bet ween police stations, businesses and the public.
Every police station was evaluated in terms of community involvement, the mana gement of crime prevention and service delivery. A police station from each pr ovince was selected as a regional winner of R10 000: Petrusville in the Northe rn Cape; Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape; Harding in Kwazulu-Natal; Barberton in Mpumalanga; Brits in North-West; Phalaborwa in Northern Province; Benoni in G
auteng; Ku ils River in Western Cape; and Ficksburg in Free State.