US Ambassador visits AfriForum’s community safety centre in Centurion
Cover image: Dr Dirk Hermann (CEO of Solidarity), Kallie Kriel (CEO of AfriForum), L. Brent Bozell III (US Ambassador to South Africa) and Flip Buys (Chairperson of the Solidarity Movement)
L. Brent Bozell III, the US Ambassador to South Africa, visited AfriForum’s community safety centre in Centurion today. The visit aimed to showcase AfriForum’s community safety structures and technology-driven control rooms to the ambassador and highlight the practical role the organisation already plays in combating farm murders and other crimes in rural and urban areas.
Ambassador Bozell’s visit comes amidst AfriForum’s ongoing efforts to resolve the dispute between South Africa and the US regarding farm murders and rural safety by putting forward practical proposals. As part of these efforts, AfriForum recently submitted a comprehensive safety proposal to the South African government.
This proposal demonstrates how community safety structures, such as AfriForum’s nationwide network of 178 neighbourhood and farm watches, can operate within the framework of the law and in cooperation with the South African Police Service (SAPS), private security companies and other safety role-players to address the country’s crime crisis in a coordinated manner through a Public Community Partnership (PCP). Furthermore, the plan aims to create safer conditions in the country so that people do not feel compelled to leave.
During today’s visit, Ambassador Bozell witnessed AfriForum’s practical implementation of the organisation’s safety plan. The capacity AfriForum already possesses through its neighbourhood and farm watches to help implement the plan was also showcased to the ambassador during the visit.
According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, the civil rights organisation’s proposal to the South African government comes at a time when no solution has yet been found for the dispute between the US and South Africa regarding farm murders, rural safety and other crime.
“AfriForum remains focused on playing a constructive role, in the interests of South Africa and its people, to help resolve the dispute between the US and South Africa regarding farm murders and rural safety. If the South African government responds positively to AfriForum’s proposal for a PCP to combat crime, it will strengthen the fight against crime in the interest of everyone in the country. AfriForum also believes that the proposal will make a positive contribution towards helping to address US concerns about farm murders and other crimes,” Kriel adds.
AfriForum’s safety proposal to the South African government includes, among other things, the establishment of a standing working committee between AfriForum and the SAPS that will focus on involving relevant safety stakeholders in a coordinated anti-crime strategy.
Kriel points out that such a strategy would rely heavily on the use of control rooms such as AfriForum’s, which employ technology – including camera networks, communication systems and crime analysis software – as force multipliers. These technologies assist local community safety structures, private security companies and the SAPS through, among other things, monitoring, coordinating responses and the deployment of resources during emergencies.
Kriel and Flip Buys, Chairperson of the Solidarity Movement, welcomed Ambassador Bozell during his visit to AfriForum. Senior members of AfriForum’s Community Safety division gave presentations to the ambassador on the various components of AfriForum’s anti-crime strategy. The following AfriForum anti-crime safety components were showcased: neighbourhood watches; specialised anti-crime response teams; the AfriForum Trauma Unit (which assists victims of crime); a disaster management centre; training courses; and technological resources such as panic buttons, drones, communication systems, camera networks and crime analysis software.
Ambassador Bozell was also shown AfriForum’s control room at its community safety centre. He also witnessed the departure of dozens of vehicles from the local AfriForum neighbourhood watches from the centre as a community patrol got underway.
