Stronger ties between FSA and police
A second meeting in six months between the leaders of Free State Agriculture (FSA) and the SAPS in the province, has strengthened their relationship. Issues such as stock theft, safety on farms, the implementation of the Rural Safety Plan and the shortcomings there off, as well as problems on ground level between the police and farmers, were discussed during the meeting on 30 June 2015.
Problems with reporting stock theft, investigations and service delivery challenges enjoyed significant attention in the meeting. The police's top management indicated that they are urgently looking into these issues to present workable solutions. The success of the training workshops that the SAPS hosted in collaboration with the FSA and VKB Safety Desk as well as the sharing of information between the desk and the police, were also on the agenda.
Working together on the future
Tommie Esterhuyse, chairperson of FSA's Law and Order Committee, Dan Kriek, president of FSA, and Kobus Breytenbach, vice-president of FSA, expressed their gratitude towards Genl. Mpembe, Police Commissioner in the Free State, and his team for the positive spirit in which these meetings take place.
"These meetings help to build trust between us and the police, to be able to differ from each other, to agree with each other, to criticize each other and to complement each other about issues and events," says Henk Vermeulen, chief operating officer of FSA. "Without such a relationship we cannot work together on the future like we are currently doing."
Esterhuyse says they also thanked the top structures of the police for the progress that has already been made with regards to problems at police stations and cases and/or officers that have been reported to them by the safety desk. "We want to encourage farmers to report the problems that they experience at ground level with service delivery, cases or investigations to the safety desk so that they can also follow up on them."
Farmers are also requested to inform station commanders if they experience service delivery problems. Where the issue is not tended to on this level, they are requested to inform the cluster commander in writing about the issue. If it is not successful on that level, the provincial commissioner can be requested to look into the issue.
