CPNW Newsletter, October 2015

Date posted: October 28, 2015

Dear Neighbours

The current situation in Masiphumelele is clearly a matter of great concern to everyone. As will be evident from our Communications, CPNW Committee Members have been attending briefings by Provincial and City authorities and we will continue to send out information as is appropriate. With the arrest of a key leader allegedly involved in some of the recent violence, who is reportedly facing some very serious charges and may not receive bail at his hearing on Friday, it is possible that there will be further outbreaks of unrest and it is evident that property is now being targeted. A Joint Operational Control centre has been set up at Living Hope and police from a number of units have been posted to the area with city authorities and local NW’s also involved.

As has been mentioned, everyone is asked to be on the lookout for unusual activity, especially:

• Piles of tyres


• Piles of rocks


• People gathered around in small groups, especially if they are young.

Please report any such activity to Patrick Wright (082 652 7474) or Craig Botha (083 2006482); they will then escalate it to the JOC who will then assimilate and assess the information. Please DO NOT POST this kind of info on any of our usual channels unless it is a clear emergency! Please continue to use our normal communications systems (radios, WhatsApp, website, Facebook) as we usually do for incidents of concern in our area. As a committee we will continue to keep a close eye on the situation and keep everyone informed.

We must stress to everyone that it has become clear that the violence is associated with some of the community members and that most people in Masi are opposed to it and as shocked and frightened by what has happened as the rest of us. It is critical that, as a community, we find as many ways as possible to show support for the people of Masi and to heal rifts between communities. We thus encourage members to be supportive of those struggling to get to work because of unrest, to consider accommodating children who are struggling to get to schools outside of Masi or who are just too afraid to be at home, to support matriculants who have been moved out of the area with food and other things to help them study, and in the longer term, to be supportive of initiatives to improve living conditions there. Our futures in this beautiful valley are tied to the wellbeing of everyone who lives here!

We must also ask all members to exercise great caution when using social media at a time such as this. Please note that communications sent via email, or posted on the CPNW website or even on closed Facebook groups have been posted for a select audience and these are not intended for wider dissemination for very specific reasons. We thus need to ask all members to act responsibly with information we have given you. Posting this on open sites can potentially compromise the security of CPNW members or even the ability of CPNW to function at all. Thoughtless posting of unnecessary comments and unverified information also only serves to inflame already heated emotions, so please think twice before you write anything that will suddenly become available, in a way you have no control over, to an extremely wide audience!

On that note we would also ask residents to raise any complaints they may have regarding ADT, with CPNW before posting these on Social Media. On more than one occasion of late, we discovered complaints via social media that had not been brought to the attention of CPNW. These were investigated with the full collaboration of ADT and found to be baseless, and although there have been apologies, the unnecessary reputational damage is hard to undo.

Crime-wise it has been another fairly quiet month in our area, with an opportunistic robbery, out of an open garage in Protea Street and vandalism and theft on Avondrust Farm resulting in the arrest of a well-known vagrant. We have been concerned about a range of suspicious activity in the Beach parking area so we have now installed an extensive camera system there. Many thanks to the Team House for accommodating this!

We would encourage everyone to keep their radios on and charged! Please listen out for radio checks!

We hope to see you all at our AGM on 9 November, 1830 for 1900, at Monkey Valley!