After five months of no leadership Durbanville Community Police Forum last Wednesday successfully elected a new executive committee in a positive spirit.
The previous election in January failed due to objections that standard prescribed procedures according to the constitution for community police forums were not followed.
Resigned in September
This new chapter came after the previous executive committee, which served for three and a half years, resigned in September last year after months of disputes and friction between the committee and Durbanville station commander Col Gonum Munsamy.
The newly elected executive committee is led by Stanislav (Stan) Turketti, who has vast experience as a retired police officer in KwaZulu-Natal, and Adv Nicole Harris (vice chair), who will see to legal matters.
Turketti joined the police service in 1974 and was transferred as a special agent to Johannesburg in 1976, where he specialised in infiltration in drug cartels and also in other organised crime such as endangered species, firearms and child-related crime. Thereafter he was transferred to Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, where he started a narcotics unit, of which he was later the commander until 1999.
Build relationships
Turketti said to TygerBurger he has a lot of experience in improving relationships between communities and the police, and aims to build on the relationship between Durbanville police and the Durbanville community.The rest of the members of the new executive committee are: Tommy van Zyl (secretary) of Durbanville Business and AfriForum, Durbanville residents Wendy Herbig (treasurer), Quintus Neethling (public relations officer) and Francois Oosthuysen (projects coordinator), also an auxiliary law enforcement officer.
New brooms at Durbanville police introduced
The new commander of Durbanville police’s investigation unit, Lt Col Christi Esterhuizen, and new commander of visible policing, Lt Col Ntombi Tshomi, were also introduced at the meeting.
Esterhuizen joined the police in 1988 in the VIP protection unit. Thereafter he served at Bellville, Elsies River and Kuilsriver police stations.
He was then promoted to provincial commander of commercial crime in the Western Cape.
Lt Col Tshomi Nofemele, commander of visible policing, joined the police in 2005 and worked at Manenberg police in visible policing and in the investigation unit. she was tranferd to the local criminal records centre in Kuruman before she took up her current position at Durbanville police.
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