Date posted: June 3, 2016
Dear NeighboursUnfortunately we must begin this letter on a very sad note: We learned early in May of the death of our ADT Patrol Officer Rie Shonga, who some may have been aware had gone missing over the long weekend. We regret not being able to release this news earlier, as we have been awaiting final confirmation of the information from SAPS and ADT (and still are). It would seem that he was murdered in an incident unrelated to his work in our community. We have been assured, by ADT, that the financial well-being of any dependents is well looked after through their insurance policies and that they take extensive steps to support the bereaved. We have also contacted his mother to express our sadness and condolences and to pass on the outstanding bonus that he was due to receive. We remember him as someone whom we could depend upon to be there when we needed him and as a warm and helpful individual who will be sorely missed.
Quite a few of you will be receiving this newsletter for the first time. We would like to welcome all our new members to Chapman’s Peak and to wish you a happy stay in our village. To those receiving this who have not just moved into the area: over the past couple of weeks we have been doing a cross check with ours and ADT’s database, and found that you have been donating to the CPNW coffers monthly through ADT, but never took the final step of registering on our website. We have, therefore, for your convenience, registered on your behalf. We would be grateful if you could go to our website www.cpnw.org.za and check your details, as we were only able to complete the bare minimum. We would like to take this opportunity, however, to thank you for supporting us financially! As you will see below, we are currently making some big investments in community resources.
We are also very grateful to those members we identified, who have unknowingly not been making contributions, and who have been quick to remedy this!
Crime-wise, we are aware of three incidents that were reported to us, of breaking and entering, with out-buildings remaining a primary target. Two such incidents were reported on Avondrust Farm, with the theft of batteries and a charger in one incident, and of laptops in the other. Another break-in occurred in Cardinal Close, with the theft of a bolt cutter and an angle grinder.
Better, and possibly related news, is that a house in Fishoek was raided by SAPS and two large crates of tools were found so it may be worth paying SAPS a visit if you are one of the recent victims of this kind of crime.
We also received a report through SAPS that a Tazz was stolen from the Farm Village area on May 20 but we do not have many details so if anyone does have any more information, please let us know.
As mentioned, the Community Centre/Control Room is coming on in leaps and bounds and we are hugely grateful to everyone who has been working on it, particularly Patrick Wright and Patty Fennell who have done a great job of coordinating the work. This is being done in collaboration with the San Michel (SMNW), Danieldale and Dassenberg/Crofters Valley (DASCRO) neighbourhood watches, who all have made significant donation of money as well as labour. We are close to completing the control room area, which will enable us to set up a highly sophisticated system to monitor the borders of all our areas. We have been donated some vital equipment, but we will need to raise additional resources to make it operational, in a campaign spearheaded by SMNW with our support. Once we have completed this and the new ADT shift-change quarters, we will start work on the community hall area and we are also about to purchase a container to store our newly acquired firefighting equipment. Of course, this all requires funding and we are not unaware of the financial squeeze many are experiencing. We do believe however, that this is an opportunity to develop exceptional facilities that will not only enhance our crime combating capabilities but also build our community even more.
We are very pleased to note further growth of the Community Connector groups! If you are not a member of one of these yet, please do so – it really is not that hard to speak to your neighbours and set up a little contact group, yet the benefits to your safety could be invaluable. Please let Lynne lchogan@netactive.co.za know if you have set one up, or if you would like to do so.
It is also great to see that the radio network keeps on growing – we now have a total of 133 radio users, which comes to almost one out of every three households. However, a radio is useless if you are not confident to use it, or if nobody is listening. So, please keep your radios switched on, to channel 8 and please do radio checks once in a while (before 2100!!), with everyone in the family getting a chance to practice!
We wish you all a safe month!
The CPNW Committee
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