Essential Guide to Hout Bay

Solving South African Crime

Last week our President Thabo Mbeki delivered his State of the Nation address.

In the lead up to the opening of parliament there had been several news stories and emails doing the rounds about South Africa's escalating crime levels.

Many people consider the murder of David Rattray as a tipping point for South Africans against the need for government action against crime.

First National Bank pulled a advertising campaign which sought to encourage South Africans to send letters to President Mbeki to do something about the problem.

The encouraging news was that Mbeki was uncharecteristically forthright about crime and the need to address it. Nobody can say that our government is in denial about our high crime levels.

Today I was forwarded one of the best articles about addressing the crime issue written by another banking institution BOE. Again it is encouraging that the capitalists seem to be leading the charge.

The article submits that South Africans "feel" like crime has reached its highest levels and has become intolerable. No surprise there.

Police Commissioner Selebi incurred the wrath of South Africans when he recently said that he didn't understand what all the fuss is about as serious crime is actually decreasing. He was right- but unfortunately very undiplomatic. He has other problems and will hopefully be replaced sooner rather later.

The article goes on to say that the problem lies in our demographic of the young between 15-29 with few soceital values and a desperation borne out of poverty, lack of jobs and poor future.

I agree with the author- if we can help our government solve that problem then our country has even more hope.

Download boe_article_on_crime_200701.pdf

Hout Bay - The good news

It was very interesting to read the crime stats for the Western Cape between April 2005 and March 2006 (Argus Friday Sept 29 Revealed: our Safest suburbs) We would like to mention the small breakthroughs we are experiencing in our very own “seaside paradise” Hout Bay.

In April 2005 crime had finally reached unacceptable levels for most Houtbayers and a small band of people got together to join the Hout Bay Neighbourhood Watch. That original group has now swelled to almost 2000 members and in the areas where we are the strongest crime has been almost completely displaced.

Capetonians forget that Hout Bay is no longer a little rural area- Hout Bay has 27 distinct suburbs with at last count more than 42 000 residents. In 25 of those sectors crime levels have dropped substantially with most areas reporting a 70% or more decrease in crime. The vast majority of crime in these areas were property related and in this year we dropped to the lowest recorded levels in 5 years- a decrease from 713 to 502 for residential burglary. Bearing in mind that the majority of residential burglaries occurred in the disadvantaged areas of Hout Bay’s crime stats were comparable (and in some cases better than) areas like Claremont, Rondebosch, Camps Bay, Gordons Bay, Durbanville and Somerset West.

How did we do it- first we created awareness of crime and how to prevent it. We eliminated soft targets for the criminals forcing them to ply their trades elsewhere. Our encouragement and support of our local police strengthened their morale, and with time freed up chasing petty criminals our police were able to target serious crime. Even with the high stats for serious crime our police were able to secure a very high arrest and conviction rate.

Communication has been our strongest weapon- we have a highly efficient 2-way radio network which allows neighbours to communicate directly with each other, the security companies and the police- with one call. Thanks to the radio network response time has not only halved but the responders have doubled. There is no room for complacency and we remain constantly vigilant.

With almost 90% of our crime now occurring in the 2 disadvantaged areas of  Hout Bay, it is more difficult to find short term wins.   We need the help of our government to help stop overcrowding and to address the problem of alcohol and drug abuse which is associated with the vast majority of all crimes.

The first big step is the opening of the new R8million Hout Bay police station on the doorstep of Imizamo Yethu which since its opening in August has already begun significantly impacting on crime. There are fledgling watches started up in the disadvantaged areas and we are giving them as much support as we can.

Hout Bay’s message to Cape Town- we are either a part of the problem or a part of the solution- and we have the power to decide!

Matt Mercer
Co Chairman
Hout Bay Neighbourhood Watch
8 Victoria Mall, Victoria Rd Hout Bay
Ph 021 7908897, 0832991133