Western Cape Community Safety Minister, Dan Plato, says he had two important meetings with police and other stakeholders in Knysna and Sedgefield to disucss their concerns about crime.
Plato says he first met police management in Knysna before holding a public meeting in Sedgefield with local residents, members of the community policing forum, neighbourhood watch and tourism authorities, amongst others.
He says residents raised a host of concerns around crime including the influx of foreign nationals to the need for a fully fledged police station in Sedgefield.
"The problems raised in both areas were about crime in general, property-related crimes also the issue around drug related crimes. Unemployment is a big problem as well. The unemployment figure I heard was in the region of 60% which is extremely high for that area," Plato said.
Plato said he aldo presented a large quantity of equipment to the neighbourhood watch and community policing forum in Sedgefield.
He said the tourism sector raised concerns about the apparent lack of head-way in solving crimes while he also called on the business sector to provide CCTV cameras for the town.
Plato said he will return to the area in two months time to measure the progress made on issues that were discussed, particularly as it pertains to the provincial police budget.
"Specifically one bugetary issue for Sedgefield is the fact that there is no fully-fledged police station and there's a massive outcry from the whole of the Sedgefield community for the erection, development of a fully-fledged police station," Plato said.
