Chatsworth wins award for tackling crime

Chatsworth's Community Policing Forum is the best in the country.

The CPF‚ which covers 13 suburbs in the south of Durban‚ took top honours at the South African Police Service national excellence awards ceremony on Saturday in Durban.

"We won the runner-up before. We decided to up our game and go for gold‚ so that's what we did. And we won‚" the forum's chairman Jakes Singh said.

The CPF of the Year award is decided based on the forum's ability to build sound relations between the SAPS and the community to assist the police in fighting crime.

Singh said the forum believed the accolade was a reward for its intensified partnerships with the local court‚ the municipality and the provincial department of transport‚ community safety and liaison.

"By engaging with the Ethekwini deputy mayor Fawzia Peer‚ we were able to get metro police to help us in our fight against crime. I then went one step further to engage with the MEC of Community Safety and Liaison‚ Mxolisi Kaunda‚ to alert him to our challenges‚" Singh said.

"Our biggest challenge remains to be petty crime committed by drug addicts known as Sugar Boys. But we seem to be tackling that by getting the community involved with more street patrols and neighbourhood watch groups."