The South African Police Service and AfriForum sign a cooperative agreement to prevent and combat crime
Pretoria, Monday 16 January 2017: The South African Police Service (SAPS) and AfriForum today signed a historic cooperative agreement which has established an integrated approach to building safety and strengthening community participation in the fight against crime.
This agreement is the culmination of engagements between the two organisations with a view to enhancing communication and liaison between them and promoting joint problem identification and problem solving in relation to crime.
In this cooperation agreement the parties undertake:
– To be of assistance to one another as needed and where appropriate;
– To engage with one another in order to establish how AfriForum can align its activities with the strategic objectives of the SAPS;
– To ensure that information which will be of assistance to the SAPS in the prevention, combatting and investigation of crime, obtained from established AfriForum community safety structures, will be shared between the two entities.
Mr Ian Cameron, AfriForum’s head of community safety, said that this agreement creates room for better communication between AfriForum and the SAPS and that it creates an opportunity for these institutions to share more information with each other in the effort to fight crime in the country. “The police today officially acknowledged AfriForum’s security structure as a partner in the fight against crime. Through this kind of cooperation we can make South Africa a safer place,” Cameron said.
The Acting National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, Lieutenant General Khomotso Phahlane, said that the SAPS is committed to preventing and combating crime across all communities.
“We have engaged with AfriForum over the past year and recognise that this structure has an important role to play in the sharing of information, in anti-crime initiatives and in assisting the SAPS to engage identified communities in crime-curbing activities,” said Lt Gen Phahlane.
“The South African Police Service, in implementing its Back To Basics approach, has repeatedly stated that forming partnerships across all spheres of the community is an integral part of ensuring that all in South Africa are and feel safe,” said Lt Gen Phahlane. “The cooperative agreement between the SAPS and AfriForum is one of the tangible outcomes of this approach which seeks to reach out to all communities in our multi-cultural environment,” he added.
The SAPS and AfriForum look forward to a lengthy and productive relationship which will be beneficial to the communities that we jointly serve.
