SAPS participates in Walk the Talk with 702 and MTN Pretoria: The National Comm…

SAPS participates in Walk the Talk with 702 and MTN

Pretoria: The National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, General Khehla John Sitole, together with Deputy National Commissioners, Regional Commissioners, Divisional Commissioners and Gauteng Provincial Management representatives led a contingent of police members at the Walk the Talk with 702 and MTN at Marks Park, Emmarentia Dam in Johannesburg.

The theme of this year’s Walk the Talk is “Walking for South Africa”. This theme reflects the theme of SAPS’s turnaround vision “On a journey to a safer South Africa”. The initiative saw the National Commissioner and his Top Management interacting with communities: “On a journey to a safer South Africa – Walking closer to the communities”.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the South African Police Service has participated in this walk which is in its 17th year of existence. The walk is divided into three categories; 15, 8 and 5 kilometres. It has become customary for the police to participate in the 8 km category which started at 09:00 and is marked by a fly-past by the police’s three aircrafts, two Pilatus Porters & one helicopter MD500.

For the SAPS, this platform presented an opportunity for top management and members to interact with the community, young and old, thereby operationalising the organisation’s community policing approach and fighting crime through youth participation. The SAPS has recently hosted the first National Youth Crime Prevention Consultative Summit where youth from various provinces converged to input on the drafting of Youth Crime Prevention Strategy which is informed by the community policing strategy. These strategies seek the involvement of the entire community in order to remove the youth out of reach of criminals and immorality. The SAPS is now working towards mobilising the young minds to join in the fight against crime, substance abuse and moral decay.

This opportunity was also utilised to get first hand feedback from participants on the strides made by stabilisation operations launched early in June to fight crimes like aggravated robberies that instil fear in communities as well as to ensure the people of this country are and feel safe. The opportunity was further utilised to communicate efforts being made to fight crimes against women and children, and lastly our capability to respond to crime swiftly was showcased through the fly past and display of operational vehicles. At the1 km point there was an SAPS power zone with the SAPS band playing and members handing out SAPS promotional items to participants.

The National Commissioner at the starting line of the walk said, “I want to let the community know that their safety is informed by the National Development Plan, and we are ensuring that the measures we have in place to safe guard their safety are indeed effective and efficient. This is also a part of a safer journey to South Africa which is in line with the SAPS’s turnaround vision”, said General Sitole.

“I want to also urge communities to call on the youth to join the platforms created for them to fight crime, like the youth crime prevention initiatives”, concluded General Sitole. #MTN702Walk #CommunityPolicing

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