Of the total number of crimes “of a serious nature” reported at Rondebosch Police Station in the past year, less than 10% occurred in the area that falls under the Rondebosch Community Improvement District (RCID).
Giving a report back on the most recent crime figures at RCID’s annual general meeting (AGM) held at Micklefield School on Thursday 13 October, Capt John Tayler, the acting station commander at Rondebosch Police Station, explained “serious crime” includes house-breaking residential, theft out of vehicles and thefts of vehicles.
“Numbers run from October to October. The total amount of crimes reported in the RCID area of a serious nature is 96 cases. So we are looking at 96 cases in a year. And we dealt with 1 150 cases from October last year until today, October 13. And in the RCID, that is 96 cases. And that’s very good,” said Tayler.
He said that people also tended to forget that last year, the Western Cape was still under the Disaster Management Act with curfews in place.
“If I compare the 2019/2020 crime stats to that of 2022/ 2023, we are still experiencing less crime than prior to lockdown.”
He added that out of the four serious incidents that occurred in the RCID area, three of them took place in the previous financial year (before December) – two house robberies and a hijacking.
Tayler, who has been the acting station commander at Rondebosch Police Station for the past two years, said that, coming from a previous police station, they could get up to four house robberies in a day.
“Or go to work on a Friday night and get home on a Sunday morning at 02:00 because you had just gone from one crime scene to another crime scene. We are living and working in paradise.”
However, he made a point of mentioning that the only reason Rondebosch could sustain these positive numbers were through the partnerships that the police station had with local security companies, RCID, neighbourhood watches and the Rondebosch Community Policing Forum (CPF).
“There are 10 000 police officers in college and those 10 000 officers are not coming to RCID Rondebosch. That’s 10 000 officers for the entire country, so do the maths.
“And in the first year, a lot of them will resign or not make the cut. Last year, when I stood here, I said I had a staff contingency of 70%. I now have a staff contingency of 48%, that is including my administration staff.
“And my guys are still performing, and we are still currently on target with our annual operations plan (AOP).”
Under contributing factors to crime in the Rondebosch policing sector, Tayler said that, with most people back at work following the Covid-19 pandemic, they no longer had almost 100% of people sitting at or working from home.
“And that contributes to having fewer eyes and ears in the suburbs, and the reporting of crime as well.”
The return of students and staff to learning institutions in the Rondebosch area was another contributing factor, he said.
“We also have our university that brings in 38 000 people, in students and staff. And that includes other parts of the university campuses. You are looking at 42 000 people that come through the area. It doesn’t sound like much but believe me, that is a lot,” he said.
The alleged carelessness of some students also got a mention.
“We all know, most of us are parents. Our children have always got excuses. They always know better. ‘Oh no, it wasn’t my fault my cellphone was taken.
“But it becomes your fault, it becomes the police’s fault or the taxpayers’ fault. So the students have a long way to go before they become adults and take responsibility for their actions.”
Lastly, Tayler listed the influx of street people into the RCID area.
Also present at the AGM was Katherine Christie, councillor for Ward 58, who said that with the crime rates so low in Rondebosch, the ward’s biggest issue at present was the theft of manhole covers and stormwater grates, with some of these manholes having remained uncovered for more than a year.
She shared that, according to video footage, these thefts mostly occurred at night during loadshedding, or as the City of Cape Town calls it, power failures.
“There is a stock issue. The City is now replacing manhole covers with plastic cement covers, which have no value and will therefore not be stolen.”
Christie said that her goal was that stock would always be amply provided for to ensure that manhole covers could be replaced within 24 hours.
“And secondly, my goal is that the City can be more proactive in removing manhole covers now and replacing them pre-emptively to avoid further thefts.”
However, she added that the City was a large, large bureaucracy.
“Coming from the private sector, I am slowly getting it into my head that things move extremely slowly, so I am going to have to be patient and any grand plans I had, you know, have died.
“So please root for me and support me as I try hard to get a quicker turnaround time on open manhole covers being replaced.”
