PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Some of the bumps in Plettenberg Bay's crime-fighting efforts have been smoothed out by local residents who donated equipment to the Plettenberg Bay Crime Prevention Association (PBCPA) over the past week.
PBCPA operations head Otto Olivier said just short of R50 000 was donated to the association's rapid response unit by local good Samaritans.
The funds were then utilised to acquire eight state-of-the-art handheld digital radios and four fixed units. These were installed in the PBCPA control room, their armoured vehicle and secondary response vehicles.
"During the recent riots, it became all too evident that communication between the members posed a huge challenge. Analog radios have been used in the past, but due to the topography of Plett we had continuous signal interference which made communication problematic. The new radios have proven to counter all those challenges," Olivier said.
He thanked the donors Alet Oleman and Rob Bokelmann representing the Plett Dinner Club and Seeff, Neville Petersen from Plett Ratepayers' Association, Marius Venter from Plett Fire Fund and Herman du Plessis from Visual Communications.
Just a week earlier the rapid response unit received three high-quality spotlights from locals. Olivier said the spotlights came from Stephen Ritky, chairman of the Airport Road farm support group.
"This wonderful, much-needed gift was tried and tested during the search for the armed robbers last night (17 July). It worked perfectly."
The PBCPA is an organisation that consists of various security role players including the police, Bitou law enforcement and private security companies, and was established in an attempt to reduce and prevent crime in the town.
Plettenberg Bay rapid response members (in uniform) received state-of-the-art radios following a recent donation of almost R50 000. Back from left: Rob Bokelmann, Marius Venter and Herman du Plessis. Front from left: Otto Olivier and Riana Venter.
'We bring you the latest Plettenberg Bay, Garden Route news'
