​On Saturday, 29 January 2022, at approximately 09:30, two law enforcement officers from the Water and Sanitation Department were conducting their daily duties, which includes various site visits and escort duties in Manenberg. During this time, they received a tip off from the community about a public member who allegedly damaged a water main.
 
Enforcement officers have had to be assigned specifically to Water and Sanitation functions due to increasing vandalism and threats/violence against staff responding to service requests in some communities.
 
The public members informed the officers that the suspect was standing on the corner of Rio Grand and Renoster Street. They detained the suspect and transported him to Manenberg SAPS, where it was found he was on the database and was wanted for multiple murders. He was then charged and booked in at Manenberg SAPS.   
 
‘Thank you to the community for taking the initiative to report this to our officers. This is a good example of how cooperation with Law Enforcement can help communities. We also appreciate the prompt response from our team to follow up on the tip off,’ said Councillor Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation.
 
‘As Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, I'm extremely proud of the efforts by our Law Enforcement staff to protect the City’s assets, therefore ensuring effective service delivery to the public. However, the increasing need to protect the staff of different departments when they work in high risk areas and to undertake the protection of their assets, while also responding to alarms and panic buttons, has become increasingly challenging and competes with the service delivery requests and crime prevention work needed by our communities.  I'm therefore quite excited about the announcement by the Mayor of a budget allocation in July, which will allow us to create a dedicated team of Facility Protection Officers who will be able to improve the protection of City assets, which in turn improves public safety and service delivery,’ said Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security.
 
Report incidents to the City’s public emergency call centre:

• 107 from a landline
• 021 480 7700 from a cellphone

 
 
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