Service delivery from our local South African Police Services office at the Blue Downs court is at an all-time low. Not that this is a surprise, but considering how bad the service has been over the last eight years, it could be getting even worse as a result of a lack of staffing. Several of the members of management who have attempted to serve us well over the last 8 years have literally thrown in the towel. I think the pressure and over commitment of their time and personal resources and the effect of the disturbing and sometimes very violent crime in the Mfuleni and Westbank areas that we share resources with have taken their toll and now we can only hope that the SAPS finds a speedy resolve to filling vacancies and dealing with staffing and resource issues at the local station.
Coupled to this is the ongoing lack of reporting of crime by locals and local businesses. Please report all incidents of crime and attempted crime to the SAPS so that we can attract further resources to our cause. The SAPS respond to crime statistics in allocating resources and if we continue to show low levels of crime, will continue to make it appear that we do not have a problem in the Blackheath area and that we are receiving adequate levels of service delivery from them, and this is NOT the case. Not even close!
Then of course there are the gang issues, organised crime and a staggering 22 attempted murder cases in a matter of a month within the neighbouring residential areas in March that further consume SAPS resources.
Luckily the Security Patrol Service that is provided within the local area by the Blackheath CID in partnership with ST3 Security is our own solution to visible policing and is effectively addressing criminals and criminal activities and further acting as a deterrent to crime within our area. We have a very good working partnership with ST3 Security and we commend them for their courageous service and on-going commitment to the Blackheath Industrial Area.
The service includes 2 24-hour security patrols, our contribution of Crysallis students, the Security Caravan equipped with CCTV equipment and other ad-hoc Security services. All these measure contribute to a safer Industrial area and our new partnership with Astrosec, monitoring our Security cameras will add to this efficiency and provide further responses to potential risk.
There is much new development within the Blackheath Industrial Area as usual and we look forward to many new partnerships.
If you would like to become more involved with the BCID and its functioning, please contact us and we would welcome you to join the steering committee.
Mark Engel and I will soon start a “door-to-door” campaign to obtain up to date information relating to local business and thereby update our company database, ensuring that all the local companies are listed on our website and are in receipt of our regular and informative updates. If you have any news, brag pieces, local news or events, please let us have them and we will gladly distribute this information to the Members of the BCID.
Remember that as a property owner you are automatically entitled to membership of the BCID, although you do need to apply to be an official member of the Blackheath CID in order to have voting rights at our public meetings.