The planned election of a new executive committee for the Durbanville Community Police Forum (CPF) last Thursday evening in the Durbanville library hall derailed before it even started.
This was a result of members of the forum objecting against the process being followed. The meeting was adjourned and postponed by Athenkosi Musoke, an administrative officer at the provincial department of police oversight and community safety, who chaired the meeting and would have officiated the election.
The election came after the previous executive committee of Durbanville CPF, which served for three and half years, resigned end of September last year.
‘Lack of transparency’
The meeting was postponed to Wednesday 25 February after almost an hour of arguing about whether it should be postpone. Those in attendance also argued about whether the meeting should have been a special general meeting (SGM) and not an annual general meeting (AGM), was held according to the constitution, as well as about the notice period and the lack of transparency about nominations.
Although emails were sent out to some members of the CPF on 18 December, not all members seem to have received it. The meeting was advertised in TygerBurger on 14 January, while the period of notice should have been 21 days.
Athenkosi Musoke, an administrative officer at the provincial department of police oversight and community safety, was not aware of the correct procedures of such an election. Musoke, dressed in sweat pants and a T-shirt, was also reprimanded by a member of the public for his conduct and asked to apologise for blasphemy. Musoke on the other hand was constantly interrupted while speaking.
Those present were also upset about a document at the entrance of the hall, which they had to sign as part of the attendance register, which contained threats of even arrest if anything discussed at the meeting is shared with other parties.
‘Recipe for disaster’
Adv Pierre de Waal, on behalf of four neighbourhood watches, among which Tara Neighbourhood Watch of which his wife, Amanda, is the chair, said the process was a “recipe for disaster”.
“Let us have a regular meeting, with proper procedures, proper nominations, proper proxies and in time, and not have a meeting where it is going to end up in a big fight again,” he said.
“You have to follow the constitution and if you don’t follow it, you will have a disaster like we had last year. The next thing is you have a review, the setting aside any elections, then we have a long period before we get back here. The CPF doesn’t function until the court rules on it. Let us avoid that, and postpone. Let us have a regular meeting with regular notice with everybody concerned. We should vote about this so that everyone can make a decision if they agree or not,” he said.
“There are people here who are representing their organisations and carrying that organisation’s mandate. Now if they leave here saying that they postponed without the mandate of the organisation, those people might get in trouble with their organisations.
“This is not a proper meeting to decide anything about elections,” he said. The majority of members voted that the meeting must be postponed.
The meeting on Wednesday 25 February will start at 18:00 in the hall of Durbanville Library.
