Soshanguve South African Police Services (SAPS) reminded the community of Soshanguve that reporting crime is important through an awareness day held on 26 April 2018
The campaign called Pol Musca, project Harmony was held at Block AA Plaza.
Through Pol Musca the SAPS are telling the community members to be alert, to know their surroundings and report any information that will assist the police in bringing perpetrators to justice.
Pol Musca was launched last year at Soshanguve Crossing mall and this year it was taken to Soshanguve Plaza because of several complaints of armed robberies from train commuters.
Block AA has an increase of house break-ins and armed robberies, people who board off trains often report issues of getting robbed at gun point or with other weapons.
According to Constable Zanele Mtsweni, primary schools and high schools have been broken into because of the equipment such as laptops.
“The operation is aimed at raising awareness and to inform community members about the incidents,” she said.
Recently the SAPS are mainly focusing on crimes such as armed robberies, house breakings and carjackings. An increase of burglaries in in Block VV, UU, WW, Extension 1, 2 and 3 have been reported especially during the day because people are away at work.
To communicate and work well with the community the SAPS has a forum called the Community Police Forum (CPF) which is a link between them and the community.
CPF has patrollers to keep the community safe and to inform the police about any suspicious activities in the community.
Nkhulu Magoro, a member of the community said the community is devided about the patrollers because there are criminals who rob them and wear similar reflectors to those of the CPF members.
The chairperson of the CPF in the area said the matter has not been reported to them as such it is not in their records.
Constable Mtsweni said the SAPS still needs to reach out to more community members to instil trust in the police and report crime.
“As the SAPS, we have noted such things and we are working hard through crime awareness campaigns, we are doing road blocks and running operations to ensure that crime decreases,” said she said.