Community acts to save their railway station and fight crime

Crime, drug-addiction and vandalism of railway stations in Ekurhuleni has seen a group of dedicated men and women form a community watch to make their neighbourhood safer.

The Kathorus neighbourhood watch and security team patrol during the day and sacrifice their sleep at night — for free.

Group member Kutlwano Kgabo, from Katlhehong in Tsholo section, said he joined the watch after being a victim of crime.

“We are doing this thing out of our love. We are not expecting payment from the community. It's people who from the bottom of their heart want to help out.”

Kgabo said crime has since decreased.

“Crime was really high. When I joined it was after they broke into my house and stole things. That’s when I realised that this is needed. Crime was high, people used to cry, there were a lot of hijackings and robberies. Looking now, crime has decreased,” Kgabo said.

Team leader Teboho Malefane agreed that crime has decreased since they started the watch.

“We work in hotspots, where we know there is a lot of mugging or where people die a lot.”

Night patrol starts at 10pm and finishes at about 3am.

“During the day we divide ourselves, but at night we meet and operate together as it is dangerous.

“We patrol at [railway] stations. On Tuesday we were patrolling at a station where there are Nyaope [drug addicts] boys stealing cables. We patrol around crèches and schools.”

“Our concern is that crime is dangerous. People are being hijacked and their belongings stolen at gunpoint. We are trying to decrease crime. We are serving and protecting the community and the community falls under my family. I am not doing it for myself, I am also doing it for other people.”

Malefane said they had at least 100 volunteers when they started in early March, but this has dropped to about 40.

“When a person joins, we take them to the police station to check for any criminal record and the person is allowed to join after getting clear results. We patrol day and night and we work with different things. We deal with any crime. With the issues of rapes and killings, if we do find that a person has committed that crime we inform the police. We work with them,” he said.

Kgabo said most of the group members are unemployed.

“During the day, we call ourselves standby. We are available in case there is crime that happens and we are called, then we can go there. We also have a WhatsApp group where we communicate. At night, from 10pm, that is when we start with the patrolling, we take our shifts where we are posted and walk around the whole community.”

Kgabo said their youngest member is a 15-year-old boy who will be doing grade 8 next year.

“We want to make our community better and motivate the youngsters so that they see that crime is not an option and they get educated. We want our community to be crime-free and better.

Kgabo said they did have a few women members but needed more, particularly for instances when women needed to be searched.

“Women [volunteers] are few and they don’t come every day.”

To step up their initiative, he said they would like donors to sponsor them for uniforms, reflectors and torches.

“We need first aid kits and maybe a course in security might also help us.”

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