LANGEBERG SAFETY FORUM INDABA

The Langeberg Municipality held a very successful Safety Forum Indaba on 29 November 2023 in the Town Hall of Robertson.

The Safety Indaba represented a culmination of effortless hard work by a small group of volunteers, who since May 2023, met on a bi-weekly basis to plan and prepare for the establishment of a Langeberg Community Safety Forum.

          This Interim Steering Committee, over the months involved members with the following activities:

• Collection of information to compile the Langeberg Safety Situation Analysis.
• Conducting Surveys in the Public to audit the Safety Climate. These surveys were conducted online with the public where residents could electronically complete the surveys. One-on-one interaction also took place where on specific
• Fridays in the five towns of Langeberg, at shopping centres, surveys were conducted with people visiting shops. All this information collected had to be compiled, studied, categorized and interpreted to arrive at outcomes to be presented at the Indaba.
• The first draft of the Langeberg Safety Plan as well as the first draft of the Langeberg Safety Charter was compiled.
• All preparatory work towards the establishment of the Langeberg Community Safety Forum was put in place.
  

  The Indaba on the day, focused on the following priorities:

• To present the Langeberg Safety Situational Analysis to all stakeholders and roleplayers;

• To frame an approach towards Community Safety;

• To identify risk and protective factors;

• To agree on Safety Priorities;

• To frame multi-sectoral responses to Safety Priorities;

• To establish the Langeberg Community Safety Forum.

A total of 110 invitees attended the Indaba, representing stakeholders and roleplayers from Public and Private Sector. All invitees represented people and institutions who associated themselves with the urgent priority to make Langeberg Municipality a “safer” place for its residents and visitors by preventing and combatting crime.

Among the attendees were decision makers from different government departments such as Departments of Agriculture, Social Development, Correctional Services, Health, Emergency Medical Services and Provincial Police Oversight and Community Safety. The SAPS District Commissioner, Major-General Groenewald, and all local Station Commanders from our five towns were also in attendance.

Further attendees to be noted were the Cape Winelands District Municipality, all our Community Policing Forums (CPF’s), Neighbourhood Watches, Rural Farm Watch and local NGO’s. The Langeberg Municipality was represented by the Executive Mayor, Deputy Mayor, the Mayoral Committee, Speaker, Councillors, Senior Management, and officials.

“I wish to acknowledge and thank the Interim Steering Committee for all its hard work to make this day a memorable success, and also each and every attendee for their valued attendance and participation," said Mr. Daniel Lubbe, Municipal Manager.

The Langeberg Municipality Safety Forum will resume its duties in January 2024.