On Thursday 24 February the Cape Town Community Policing Forum (CPF) Cluster Board elected its new executive members during the Annual General meeting held in Maitland.
Cape Town CPF Cluster Board consists of nine police stations namely, Woodstock, Maitland, Kensington, Cape Town Central, Pinelands, Langa, Sea Point, Camps Bay and Table Bay Harbour.
The role of the cluster board is to oversee individual CPF’s within the cluster and the oversight of the cluster policing status.
People eligible to take up positions is the CPF are chairs of the police stations within the cluster.
Justin Kumlehn, Chair of the Maitland CPF, says there are only three statutory positions and a cluster commander (former official member) to the cluster board. He says all the stations are members on the cluster board.
The new executive members are:
Chair: Justin Kumlehn, he is taking over the reins by outgoing Chair, Mogamat Nordien; Deputy Chair: Cheslyn Steenberg (Kensington CPF Chair); Treasurer: John Berry (Pinelands CPF Chair); Secretary: Cpt Cyril Dicks (acting secretary)
As per the CPF constitution the secretary should be a police official which the cluster commander appoints.
Kumlehn says he is excited and grateful for being elected but adds that the role does not come without challenges.
“It’s a daunting role and there are many issues within CPF’s and police stations that need to be taken up within our cluster as well. So, I will have to wrap my head around the various issues. These are not issues that only plague our cluster, but all clusters. I will have to wrap my head around those scenarios before I can physically plot a way forward on how we are going to attempt things.”
He says although it’s still too soon to share his vision, he wants to work on strengthening partnerships.
“I want to improve the communication between CPF and the police and the oversight role which CPF has, and strengthening the partnership role between CPF and the police.
“We are lucky that in our cluster we have a good partnership, but I want to work on strengthening that and expanding on those partnerships.”
Steenberg says he is ready to take on the challenges his new role comes with.
“Being elected unopposed as the Deputy Chairperson of the Cape Town CPF Cluster Board is a privilege and honour that I will work hard to maintain, but it also signals that any structure should be open to new blood and fresh ideas to tackle crime and its sources and consequences in our very diverse communities.
According to Steenberg serving the community should ways take centre stage.
“This cluster will be setting standards and open the flow of community dialogue. We should not forget why and who we serve – the people and that gives me hope to daily get up and try again.”
