The Saldanha Bay Municipality, together with members of the Saldanha Bay Safety Initiative (SBSI), hosted its 2022 Safety Summit on Tuesday 26 July at the Multi-purpose Centre in White City, Saldanha.
The theme of this year’s summit was, “Strengthening the feat [needing strength, valour and skill] of Community Safety.”
The key objectives of the gathering were to highlight public and community safety initiatives in the municipal area, review existing programmes and identify new and emergency safety priorities.
Furthermore, the summit laid the foundation to further strengthen partnerships and collaboration among key role players in their shared goal to fight crime, to create safer communities and manage effective execution of law enforcement.
The event was attended by various law enforcement agencies, including the South African Police Service and other key role players, such as members of the Mayoral Committee (MMC), ward councillors, municipal management and officials, representatives from the West Coast District Municipality Disaster Management and those from local neighbourhood watches and members of the community.
In his keynote address, Executive Mayor Councillor André Truter applauded the SBSI members for their commitment to organising the summit and marking it as the start of a journey towards an even more focused effort to manage safety and crime in the area.
He shared with the audience how important it was to establish a safe environment, not only to see business, investment and living conditions prosper, but because morally creating a stable, safe environment for generations to come is a collective responsibility.
The Executive Mayor emphasised safer communities are everyone’s responsibility, and spoke of the importance of a “My Town, My Responsibility” attitude that should be adopted by all residents.
In addition to the Executive Mayor, various speakers from other safety and security role-players, such as the Western Cape Provincial Government, West Coast District Municipality and South African Police Service’s local Cluster contributed greatly to the substance of the day’s topic and discussions.
Delegates had the opportunity to gather in smaller groups to workshop and submit initiatives to improve and support the safety plan for the Saldanha Bay municipal area.
