Stalking by the homeless, robberies and petty crime, as well as the murder of Matie Jesse Mitchell last October, were among the topics discussed at Stellenbosch University’s Student Representative Council’s (SRC) safety imbizo held last Thursday (10 April).
In an effort to get more students involved in addressing crime and safety in and around Stellenbosch, the SRC met with various students and stakeholders in the Stellenbosch Town Hall. Chaired by Zahn Marais, Prim Committee: vice-chairperson and student representative for safety, the meeting saw local police, business people and concerned citizens sharing information.
Among the students’ complaints were the lack of street lights in some areas, the lack of response from police and harassment they suffer from vagrants in town. One female student said it is not simply a case of leaving campus during daylight hours, as the computer labs and library is on campus and social activities take place after hours. However, she added that campus security does an excellent job of escorting students to their cars at night when requested.
Another student asked police representatives why, after seven days, they still have not contacted her after she tried to report an incident the previous Friday when she asked that officers meet her at her residence. The student explained she didn’t feel safe leaving her residence.
From the floor, residents, representing organisations, urged the students to join existing structures like the community policing forum (CPF) and community forums and to not “reinvent the wheel”.
Lwando Nkamisa, councillor for Ward 23, said the lack of student representation on the CPF is troublesome. “In order for [students] to be safe, our town has to be safe. We can’t be safe in an unsafe town. So let’s try our level best to look beyond this [university] bubble we have,” Nkamisa urged.
Getting input from all sectors and making use of the skills and knowledge of students and tertiary institutions was exactly what Vanya Gastrow, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, encouraged at the forum. Gastrow, who was the keynote speaker at the event, shared findings on data driven crime-fighting, and the pilot project in Mitchells Plain, where local police were using data points to address offences from petty crime to murders.
“Evidence-based policing involves using scholarship to inform and strengthen policing strategies,” Gastrow explained. “Traditionally police carried out hotspots policing by increasing patrols in neighbourhoods that experienced high levels of crime. And when you initially hear that, it kind of makes sense. I think the logic was that increased police visibility in these areas would deter potential criminals from offending. However, global research has shown that this form of policing is not very effective, and is quite wasteful in terms of resources.”
Instead of visible policing over large areas, Gastrow said global studies found that 2% to 5% of streets accounted for 50% of reported crimes. Targeting certain hotspots, like commuter routes, at specific times, and taking into account who is being targeted, is therefore much more effective for crime prevention. “Researchers conducting experiments found that it was more impactful and resource efficient to target small areas where crime was concentrated, rather than entire neighbourhoods. By small, I mean very small, like a couple of streets, a park, an alleyway,” Gastrow explained.
Although there were calls for more help from municipal Law Enforcement, mayor Jeremy Fasser explained fighting crime is not within the municipality’s mandate. Fasser said despite this, funds from the current draft budget, which is now open for comment, has been allocated to upgrade CCTV, strengthen Law Enforcement and Traffic Services.
Dr Viljoen van der Walt, SU chief director of Risk Management and Security, said incidences like Mitchell’s death is an anomaly and that most of the incidents reported to campus security involve students neglecting their property and petty crime. He urged initiatives like the regular crime awareness days should be built on so that more students play an active role in crime prevention.
