Bid to involve province's youth in crime-fighting process

Mkhululi Ndamase

EASTERN Cape Human Settlements, Safety and Liaison MEC Helen Sauls-August yesterday called on the youth to be part of the process of fighting crime.

Sauls-August was speaking at a media briefing at the Port Elizabeth City Hall. She was in Nelson Mandela Bay to launch safety month, identified by the government since 2002 as February.

While the province has 193 community policing forums working with the police to fight crime, Sauls-August said they needed the youth to join in.

"The amount of work put in to ensure community safety needs to be complemented by maximum youth participation in the fight against crime.

"This is very important in the province, which has been bedevilled by violent attacks on elderly women, mostly perpetrated by young people.

"Community policing remains an important element of our provincial crime fighting. Since our province is 70% rural, with high levels of poverty and unemployment, this structure has, over the years, become a reputable ally of the SA Police Services in the fight against crime in communities."

Sauls-August said they would also be launching the Steve Tshwete Games as a way of keeping the youth off the streets and involved in sport.

The sports codes in the games will be soccer and netball. Teams will first battle it out at district level, with the provincial games to be played on the 27th and 28th of this month in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Sauls-August also launched youth dialogue programmes, with the aim of exposing young people "to the realities of crime to prevent them from committing any criminal activities".