Sponsoring Safety in Rustenburg
A community in need.
Communities in Rustenburg are seeing light at the end of the crime-riddled Bojanala district tunnel, according to Ansie Pretorius, an administrator of the Rustenburg Crime Combating Forum (RCCF).
While its not that everything is hunky-dory in Rustenburg regarding crime. The RCCF (crime combating forum) is working tirelessly to ensure it protects vulnerable communities living in fear around the Bojanala district. Pretorius says they will stop at nothing until crime stats drop drastically for all to live free.
Rustenburg in the North West province is ranked in 11th place as one of the most dangerous cities in Africa, and is reported in first place regarding criminal activity in the North west province. for the peaceful residents living in this city, something must be done.
When asked what is being done to combat crime, Pretorius (RCCF) showed us a well-crafted board on her entrance gate, which bares the RCCF logo, the Evotel logo. The signage is the first step to getting protection. We have partnered with Evotel, and the “Fibre to Everyone” company has come to the party as a leader in driving community safety in Rustenburg, using high speed fibre internet to improve communication between forum members.
She says the sponsorship and support they receive from Evotel is immeasurable, as they need as much internet connectivity they can get.
Interestingly, the RCCF members communicate on an Android free-to-download App called Zallo. The App works like a two-way radio and its frequency relies solely on a quality internet connection. fortunately quality internet is an area of expertise for Evotel.
Growing the forum
She further attributed Evotel’s involvement in their group to their growing numbers of members, now standing at more than 6000 members, all dedicated to ensuring that their neighbours are safe.
“We welcome new signees to the forum daily interested to join and require gate boards, which shows that they are protected by RCCF, the signage sponsored by Evotel too,” she said while flanked by forum chairman, Kobus Ferreira.
“We are a non-political, not-profit and non-racist body working towards assisting everyone affected by crime in Rustenburg,” said the chairman at the Pretorius home in Rustenburg Central.
“It’s very dangerous living in this city,” added Ferreira, and we hope that community involvement like the RCCF will make cities like Rustenburg a hard target, and drive out crime all together.
Ferreira then demonstrated how the two-way Zallo App works, with Pretorius in another room, Ferreira and Pretorius were able to communicate clearly, without interruption, noting that the service works flawlessly even over long distances.
“I must say, the gate boards work well for us, and we need more as everyone wants it. These boards are free for everyone who want to join the forum, and help show criminals that we will not put up with crime in Rustenburg. We work with the police, different community policing forums, emergency medical service (EMS) and different other security companies, all driven to stamp out crime.
Assistance on the way
How the forumworks. When a crime is reported either through the app or directly to Pretorius, (her contact details are on the gate boards) Pretorius alerts everyone on the Zallo App group, the members then come out of their houses, wear their Evotel sponsored reflectors, and charge towards attempting to rescue the situation, forcing criminals to flea and often foiling their attempts at criminal activity.
“We are doing this for free, but we just love protecting communities, and this is thanks to Evotel’s selfless effort to keep us together,” Pretorius added while indicating that the five-years of their operation has been helpful.
Thank you to the fearless members of the RCCF in Rustenburg and all the community policing forums in South Africa your contribution to community safety is immeasurable.
