Back on my trusty steed again
In this particular case...
I attended both of these meetings,
held to inform our suburb about security issues.
I had been told that previous meetings were notoriously under attended,
with that in mind, I expected to walk into the school hall and find five people.
Therefore I was most surprised to discover an almost full venue on Tuesday night.
I had been told that previous meetings were notoriously under attended,
with that in mind, I expected to walk into the school hall and find five people.
Therefore I was most surprised to discover an almost full venue on Tuesday night.
The opening and closing on both evenings
was done by Elma Smit, who is currently handling the
Social Media portfolio of the LCA.
The recently elected chairperson of the LCA,
Estee Jamieson.
She is VERY passionate about our suburb.
I think that the turn out on BOTH evenings was testimony
to her dedication and drive.
That being said, the feedback that I got from chatting to people there
was that the event could have been better publicised.
Our ward councellor, Bruce Herbert.
He was only at the Tuesday meeting and was not there as part of the LCA.
He was not asked any questions during the presentations,
although he might have been over a cup of tea at the end of the meeting
On Tuesday night Henry from the
Blairgowrie Community Association
shared the story of how their suburb had fought crime
and were winning.
Linden, we can do it as well!
LCA Security committee member Neels Claasen
presented a well thought out security plan for the suburb.
There WILL be detractors and "nay-sayers",
but as he said on Thursday night,
"It is time to stop the fragmentation and work together"...
and Pieter van de Linde.
He explained how cameras can help to pick up trends
and counteract crime.
Representing SAPS and the Linden Police Station,
Captain Vermaak...
A great sense of humour, but with a serious side as well.
He mentioned that one of the easiest ways to thwart crime
is to get to know your neighbours.
This model works in the "townships" and squatter camps,
but in the more "affluent" suburbs, we put up walls
and do not interact with anyone.
Wrapping up...Elma Smit
reinforces what had been discussed on
Tuesday and Thursday evening.
Now WE have to take the reins and help make our suburb safe again.
PLEASE DO NOT believe that crime cannot happen to YOU.
This was the crowd on Thursday evening.
Word had obviously spread, but personally I would like to have seen
standing room only...
there are 2200 homes in our suburb.
Over the two nights, there were about 450 people present.
Do the math...the 80/20 rule will apply.
And the complaints WILL come from the 80% who did NOT attend.
I therefore ask those who attended, if you neighbours did not,
go and chat to them and explain why their participation is SO important
to the overall safety of our wonderful suburb
Once again, Captain Vermaak entertained
and at the same time made us aware of the past and current crime stats.
A sobering way to end off the week.
As all of the speakers said,
It is now up to the "citizens" of Linden to make this initiative work.
Like the event on Tuesday, the Q&A "session" was delayed
until the end of the meeting.
There seemed to be a LOT of interest generated...
now to convert that to actual deeds.
COME ON LINDEN...
YES WE CAN!
If you want to become involved with the LCA,
contact them on:
www.lindenjhb@gmail.com
www.lindenjhb.co.za
Facebook: We Love Linden
Twitter: @Linden_LCA
These are the two PROACTIVE security companies
that the LCA are endorsing.
They cannot force you to change from your existing
security provider, but the less fragmentation of security we have,
the safer our suburb will be.
On a personal note, we have just converted to one of these companies,
and the service over the last few months has be exemplary.
Should you wish to find out more about what each compamy offers,
visit their respective websites:
www.csstactical.co.za
or
www.cortac.co.za
For either of these companies to operate at peak effiency,
we need fibre in our neighbourhood!
How do we achieve that?
We get FTTH using Vumatel.
Currently Linden is 5th in line to get FTTH,
we need 600 homes to express interest before Vumatel will start laying cable.
Help make this happen...
Use this link to express interest in getting one of their options.
DO IT NOW!
https://vumatel.servicezones.net/Zone/Overview?zone=62c8ff1c-a57a-4ae1-80d0-a38800c5057b
And that is all I have to say...
Until the next time.
