In response to today’s Daily News article on Brig. Zama page 2 I submit the following:
I will echo something said by Brig. Zama at a CPF meeting earlier this year: “There is only 1 CPF in Pinetown”. He is right, we have one CPF comprising 5 sub-fora. The sub-fora cover roughly, Wyebank, New Germany, Kloof, Pinetown Central and Pinetown South and are named accordingly. Brig. Zama’s contention that there are 2 CPF’s lies in his unhappiness with the high level of activity in the Pinetown Central Sub-forum, composed of mostly white residents of the mostly white central Pinetown area (Manors, Cowie’s Hill, CBD and Industrial).
As a ward councillor it is my responsibility to support the CPF in my ward. When I became a councillor in 2009, the Pinetown Central Sub-forum, which had been filled with people selected by Brig. Zama after the takeover by him of the whole CPF, was defunct, and I managed to get one or two meetings off the ground before the chairperson was kicked out of the CPF on a criminal charge. I invited a retired policeman living in Pinetown, Mr Ken Goldstone, to stand for chair during the AGM which was called to elected a new committee. The AGM was advertised, organised and chaired by the SAPS and only 1 person of colour attended the meeting, Mr Aubrey Ngubane, who I had invited. Mr Ngubane declined nomination to the Chair due to his work commitments but accepted nomination to and was elected as Deputy Chair.
Mr Ngubane has since been seconded to revive the dormant Pinetown South (Ward 16) Sub-forum and I have attended those meetings in place of their own absent ward councillor, Mr Stanley Buthelezi. Fortunately, as a result of the recent focus on crime, Mr Buthelezi attended his own CPF meeting last month and I am hopeful of his continued involvement. I attended the last AGM of the the New Germany (Ward 21) Sub-forum, which, lacking the ongoing support of their Ward 21 Councillor Ms Nelly Nyanisa, has not been active between AGMs. The Kloof (Ward 10) Sub-forum, with the full support of Cllr Gill Noyce is active and meets regularly. The Wyebank Sub-forum appears to be dormant according to report backs at our monthly CPF meeting at Pinetown SAPS where all the sub-fora are supposed to be represented.
I have no doubt that most if not all the names of absent councillors mentioned above will be in full attendance at this Saturday’s meeting of the CPF. That will be the first time this year that other ward councillors attend as is required of them as ex-officio members. I have personally called and timeously invited the other ward councillors in the Pinetown Policing Area at the request of the Pinetown Cluster CPF chair, Mr Sibaca but they did not attend the meeting. Cllr Diana Hoorzuk stated on Sunday that she and her colleagues have not participated in the CPF meetings for two years because they have not received invitations. Protesting that the notices are in the papers, that the meetings are on a fixed schedule, that I had tried to invite the other ward councillors previously, and that perhaps it is also incumbent upon them to find out for themselves, I was advised that unless personally invited for each meeting they could not attend.
Today, coincidentally, for the first time ever, I received a written invitation addressed “Dear Honourable Councillor” to attend Saturday’s CPF meeting. Hopefully, as suggested above, this bodes well for the full participation, as is required of them, by the other 4 ward councillors in the Pinetown policing area.
Brig. Zama chose not to attend either of the two public meetings of which he was well aware. The meetings were advertised in the newspapers and via email to members of the community, which at very least, his crime intelligence team should have got wind of (as I was advised they had). The CPF memorandum was drafted at his behest and he had visibility of it before it was sent to the Provincial Commissioner the first time. The second memorandum was drafted at a later stage, by myself, for the attention of the Provincial Commissioner. Since it was addressed to the PC, it is up to Gen. Ngobeni whether the Brig. was advised of the contents thereof. However, since it is a public document and has been made available since 24 October on my blog at warwickchapman.com, the Brig. can easily source the document should he wish.
I was, however, at both meetings, as were members of the press, and at no stage did anyone say or intimate that we want a white station commander. We want a commander who cares for his members and develops them to their full potential in the very tough fight against crime in Pinetown. We want a commander to bring the rate of crime down to match the trend of the rest of the country instead of up, against the trend. So, in short, Brig. Zama’s quotes contention that “They are saying they want a white commander” is hogwash. Brig. Zama is a race obsessed, manipulative, power-mad dictator. Just ask those who have to work for him… that is if you can find someone not too terrified to speak.
In the end, he is still the Station Commander and I am still the Ward Councillor. We may not like one another, but we have a responsibility to the people living in the Pinetown Policing Area to work together. That is, indeed, what I committed myself to at Sunday’s meeting infront of members of the public from my ward and from a few other wards who attended. That is why, on Monday morning, I was sitting infront of the Brig. at the 09h00 GOCOC meeting talking about the improvement in vehicles, the realigned sectors and the crime statistics for the past weekend. We do have work to do, and that is what we will do, with Brig. Zama while we must, but ideally with a more caring and committed officer at the helm.
