POLOKWANE – The Deputy Minister of Police Mr Cassel Mathale today, visited Limpopo Province to conduct community outreach program on Gender Based Violence and Femicide.

The Deputy Minister was joined by Kgoshi Kgabo Moloto III, the MEC for Transport and Community Safety Mrs Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya, the Executive Mayor of Polokwane Municipality Councilor JM Mpe, the Members of Parliament Mr Knocks Seabi and Mr Chabane, the Speaker of the Provincial Legislature, the Chairperson of the Portfolio on Police, the Chief Director from the Civilian Secretariat on Police Service Mr Ntuli, the Provincial Commissioner of Police in Limpopo Lieutenant General Thembi Hadebe, Major General Mathonsi from the Division, Visible Policing, Police Management at Provincial, District and Station levels, the CPFs and CSFs as well as stakeholders from different entities and NGOs and community members.

The event, which took the format of an Imbizo, was held at Moletjie Tribal Authority sports ground in the Seshego policing area and scores of people listened attentively as speaker after speaker engaged on pertinent issues related to GBVF.

Community members were given the platform to ask questions and or voice their concerns on policing matters, especially GBVF. During this process, a desk manned by officers from Inspectorate was used to record all complaints.

In his keynote address, the Deputy Minister focused more on partnership policing in the fight against crime, educating the society on how to protect and create a safe environment for women and children and persistently continue to engage with the communities to curb crime.

“As the Government we need to work together to find possible solutions to this scourge of Gender Based Violence and Femicide. We must all respond to the call to fight crime and understand that it is through our collective efforts that the challenges and problems were are faced with in our society, are confronted and resolved. We need to engage more often with our communities as we can learn a lot from each other, listen to them attentively to understand what they are facing so that we come up with suggestions and resolutions towards their challenges. Let us respond speedily when we interact with ourselves and the community at large and refrain from prolonging procedures unnecessarily because that way, we will end up being comfortable explaining why things can’t happen.In conclusion, we must start to change the way we think and do business if we want to create a crime free society.

The event was well attended but compliance with COVID-19 protocols was maintained.

Source: South African Police Service