SAPS launches #Back2Basics strategy; emphasises necessity of community structures

21 October 2016  

The civil rights organisation AfriForum welcomes the utterance by Lt Gen Khomotso Phahlane, Acting National Police Commissioner, during this morning’s official launch of the SAPS’s #Back2Basics strategy that community safety structures play an enormous role in the safety of all South Africans.

According to Ian Cameron, AfriForum’s Head of Community Safety, the civil rights watchdog already took the lead by means of establishing effective safety networks across South Africa and they are also working with community policing forums, the South African Police Service (SAPS), private security companies, neighbourhood watches and other community safety structures to combat crime. 

Cameron furthermore says that the importance of partnerships between the above parties must be emphasised even more in future. “The #Back2Basics strategy of Lt Gen Khomotso Phahlane, Acting National Police Commissioner, can only be successful when it is executed in cooperation with communities. That way an actual attempt to rebuild community structures can subsequently lead to a drastic decline in crime.”    

AfriForum plans on increasing intensity with the establishment of safety structures in 2017.

Issued by Ian Cameron, Head: Community Safety, AfriForum, 21 October 2016