Warwick Bruce Chapman

1. Tell us a bit about your background, childhood, family and schooling.

My parents are Ex-Zimbabwean and came to SA in 1980. Family all live up in Ballito. I’m in Pinetown in order to best do my job as Ward 18 councillor.

2. How did you get involved in local politics, and what motivated and inspired you to do so.

I used to be a supporter of the ANC. During the 2000′s that waned to the extent that I joined the DA in 2007 out of the blue. Fortunately I made it onto their excellent Young Leaders programme for 2008 and that set the tone for the years to come. In 2009 after the General Election, I took an opportunity to stand in a ward where the councillor had moved to Province and was elected in June 2009.

3. Who are your role-models.

My parents are examples of the sort of people that make the world a better place. Mandela would never have been able achieve what he did if there wasn’t a significant number of reasonable people out there willing to choose the middle road. So on the one hand, my parents inspire me to be good, wholesome and to cherish family. And leaders like Madiba inspire me to have conviction, believe in the prosperous South Africa we want become, and fight for the balance our democracy requires before we will see that.

4. What did you do before you became a councillor.

I ran at IT business for 10 years. I am a bona fide geek turned politician.

5. Tell us a bit about your family.

My brothers are both younger than me, though there’s only 3.5 years between Barry, the youngest, and myself. My parents were both deeply affected by the Rohdesian Civil War, my mother losing her legs as a teenager from a landmine blast and my father being the victim of a few blasts while on service. Much of my motivation comes from not wanting to see that sort of violence happening in South Africa as it has over most of post-Independence Africa. We can and must be different.

6. Do you enjoy your job.

I find my job both infuriatingly frustrating and very rewarding. I am frustrated at the crippled state of our local government, the low quality of services which result and the wastage of money which occurs through poor management and corruption. I am infuriated regularly by the cheap politics employed in the face of severe poverty and suffering, and I am regularly incensed by the liberal use of the race-card. However, there are so many people out there both in need of help and willing to help. Many city officials do everything they can to do the best job they can, and many people can be helped by me directly. The knowledge that I can directly make a difference for people who really need it as well as the desire to see the gradual improvement in the quality of our City government provide me with all the motivation I need to counter the negatives.

7. Have there been moments in your career when you thought you were going to fail at what you were doing.

I have failed. I failed to ensure that Pinetown SAPS was provided with the sort of quality senior leadership it needs to fight the significant crime wave in the area. The tradeoff was that several significant operational improvements have taken place as a result of the pressure and focus. I still maintain that Pinetown SAPS needs a station commander who is passionate about the morale and performance of his/her officers in the significant fight against crime in the area.

That is my biggest failure so far. I am certain I will fail again. Will I fail in my bigger mission to help make South Africa the prosperous Rainbow Nation which Madiba helped us dream about? Perhaps, but I sincerely doubt that. Our democracy will see the balance it so desperately needs in the coming decade and through that will come the good governance required to service the needs of the people and create the opportunities people need to make their lives better.

8. What was the proudest moment in your career.

I couldn’t say really. I’ll be proud when I know the future of our country is secure.

9. What was the most embarrassing moment in your career.

I really messed my first interview as a potential council candidate. As my MP says, I really screwed it up. Thank goodness they chose to give me a bash anyway.

10. Tell us something about you the public doesn’t know.

I attend the KZN Philharmonic at the City Hall as often as my calendar permits. I find the performances liberating in the same way that doing a hard workout in gym is – you need to sit still, be quiet, listen and take it in until its finished.

11. What are your goals, ambitions, and future plans.

Have a family. Inspire people to live a life of peace and love (Yes, I am an Amakhosi fan). Be a major contributor to securing our democracy and ensuring our government is the first truly good government South Africa has ever known.

12. What are your likes, interests and hobbies.

I rowed a lot at university and after. I enjoy overlanding (4×4) especially north of South Africa. I have a 1990 Land Cruiser and am about to buy a 1980 Mercedes, so I guess I have a thing for old cars. I am a genuine geek, and administer several Linux servers and applications for projects within the party.

13. What message would you like to give to the people in your Ward for the upcoming election.

If you are not yet registered to vote or if you have moved since the last election, please register 5/6 March. Then on election day, please vote on who you think will govern eThekwini best. Leave the rest of the issues for dinner-table debates. We need good governance – vote for the party you believe has a proven track record in delivery.

As of Saturday 22 January, 2011 all Metro Police personnel based at the Pinetown station were informed that station is closing and they are to report to Queensburgh on Monday 24 January. Ward 18 and Pinetown councillor, Warwick Chapman, was not consulted in the plan whatsoever. Chapman has placed significant fpocus on crime and law enforcement in the greater Pinetown area and the Democratic Alliance believes finds it unacceptable that he was not consulted about the plans.

Cllr Chapman said the plans had been confirmed this morning, “The West Regional Commander, Dir. Kay Naidoo, confirmed on the phone to me this morning that the instruction had come from head of Metro Police, Eugene Nzama. The City Manager, Dr Sutcliffe, said he did not know of the plans but would bring them up at his City Manager’s meeting this afternoon and revert. Anonymous reports from officers suggest that SAB and a Dir. Chin from Durban will be setting up an alcohol and drug testing facility in Pinetown using the premises of the Pinetown Metro Police.”

An officer who wished to remain anonymous asked expressed concern for the delivery of services in the area and the lack of consultation, “It is official, we are all to report to Queensburgh. There are so few members left at Pinetown already that are operationally we struggle. Who is going to help the community now in the area? There was no report to or discussion with anybody in the community.”

Councillor Chapman believes that the complexity of the Pinetown area requires a Metro Police station in the middle of Pinetown to ensure a quick response to emergency situations or law enforcement. For the past year Chapman has been petitioning Metro Police management to deal with the shortage of Captains and improve the productivity of the Pinetown Metro Police station. “What we need is more quality officers, better leadership and more discipline! Pinetown is the covergence point of 7 provincial roads, has a massive concentration of taxis and pedestrians fighting for space with heavy trucks and delivery vehicles constantly flowing through the area’s industrial, commercial and residential zones.”

Instead of moving the Pinetown Police Station further away from where it is most needed, what Pinetown actually needs according to Cllr Chapman is more effect law enforcement. “If you consider the mix of different property zonings in the area, the very large parks such as Crompton and Lahee Parks, the sheer number of illegal businesses, the complex traffic and pedestrian environment and the general problem in the area of crime, what Pinetown actually needs is more Captains and more focus on bylaw and traffic enforcement, and definitely not for the station to be shut down.”

Response times, crucial to traffic management and bylaws enforcements are going to be severly affected if Metro Police officers serving the Pinetown are going to be based from the Queensburgh Metro office. “There is not reasonable justificant for why the station should be closed. Instead of being able to be on the scene within a few minutes, Metro Police are now going to travel for 15 to 20 minutes or more depending on traffic to get to the centre of Pinetown from Queensburgh. The consequences of this drastically increased response time will inevitably be poorer law enforcement and more traffic problems.”

– Warwick Chapman (Cllr Ward 18) | 083 7797 094 | ward18@ethekwini.org | http://warwickchapman.com

Editor

I have it on good authority that a request and motivation are to be forwarded to the City Manager that “Durban” be officially renamed to “Dirtbin”. I call on Dr Sutcliffe to reject this request, regardless of the very real merits of the motivation. He would, however, do well to heed the reasons why people from other parts of the country have started calling us “Dirtbin”.

Littering, dumping and going to the toilet in public go unpunished in Durban – and authorities like Durban Solid Waste are helpless as Metro Police do little to enforce the bylaws. Dr Sutcliffe, before you leave us, please get Metro Police back on the horse and enforcing the laws of this City.

– Cllr Warwick Bruce Chapman, Pinetown

The DA supports any effort which aims to increase genuine participation of the community in the fight against crime. There are three key roles the community must play in this fight, and it is important that all three roles are enthusiastically embraced:
1. Make our own neighbourhoods safer by working together to protect our communities
2. Collaborating with the Police to set the crime fighting strategy and plan and execute operations
3. Most importantly, defend and undertake our oversight role and ensure our Police station is providing efficient service delivery to the community

I would like to quote Major-General Jula, our Deputy Provincial Commissioner of Police who said the following in this hall on Sunday:
“We invite the community to join us in the fight against crime by demonstrating a sense / culture of territoriality over their neighbourhoods and playing a role as whistle blowers and our eyes and ears.”

We must take ownership of our neigbourhoods. We must no longer accept what has become a culture of violent crime. We must ensure that known criminals no longer feel comfortable in our homes. We must blow the whistle on criminals and errant Police officers.

All members of SAPS have sworn to fulfill their obligations as laid out in the constitution and I remind you of them:
- to prevent, combat and investigate crime
- to maintain public order
- to protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic and their property
- and to uphold and enforce the law

In the course of this partnership it must be remembered that for a partnership to work, both parties must commit themselves. If one of the community or the Police do not play ball, this partnership will fail and crime will be the winner.

We will continue to support the growth and business of Community Police Forums and the formation of neighbourhood watches and street committees affiliated to the CPF. We recognise the role we have to play here and we embrace the opportunity and the responsibility before us.

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.