As the festive season approaches, and the Dolphin Coast sees an influx of tourists and visitors, there comes the risk of an uptick in criminal activity.
Whilst volunteers for the neighbourhood watches were plentiful during and after the rioting, now numbers have dramatically dwindled to a skeleton crew. Since the riots in 2021, the Salt Rock Neighbourhood Watch (SRNW) has continued doing active patrols every night. Starting in July of 2021, to date some 730 shifts have been undertaken, however, now the frequency of shifts has been reduced due to patroller resignation. From 34 patrollers there are now just 11 patrollers, but they have managed to maintain at least one crew patrolling the streets of Ward 22 every night.
Therefore, DOCRRA joins the SRNW and Ballito Neighbourhood Watch (BNW) in an urgent call for volunteers to patrol the streets.
Patrollers are instructed to be “eyes and ears” only and absolutely no confrontation is encouraged or tolerated. If anything suspicious is observed, contact is made with 3 security company control rooms via WhatsApp, and they will do the follow-up, and attend to and apprehend if necessary. Any resident who has community safety at heart is welcome to join the teams. Volunteers are required to give up 2 hours of their beauty sleep time in the early hours, once a week. Shifts run from 00:00-02:00 and 02:00-04:00, alternating weekly.
The need for patrols is critically important to the safety of our community; not just in times of crisis.
As an incentive, DOCRRA will be offering free membership to any volunteer who joins either of the neighbourhood watches.
Those interested in Salt Rock can contact Hans Broerse on 082 961 8744 and those interested in Ballito can contact Madeleine Hayhurst on 084 242 2566.
LET’S CONTRIBUTE TO A SAFE AND SUCCESSFUL FESTIVE SEASON
