Media Release: Neighbourhood Watch Awards 2018

Joint Media Release by

Western Cape Minister of Community Safety, Dan Plato,

City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member: Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith

Date: 17 January 2018

Release: Immediate

Neighbourhood Watch Awards 2018 – nominations still open until end January 2018

The City of Cape Town’s Safety & Security Directorate and the Western Cape Government’s Department of Community Safety (DOCS) encourages nominations for the forthcoming Neighbourhood Watch Awards 2018 to be held in February 2018.

The Neighbourhood Watch Awards 2018 will honour Accredited Neighbourhood Watches, and their members, who have gone above and beyond the call of duty during the course of 2017.

The deadline for nominations is 31 January 2018.

Ald. Jean-Pierre Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Social Services, Safety and Security said:

“Neighbourhood watches are force multipliers in the fight against crime, expanding our abilities and assisting us in making communities more secure. The Watches together with the Law Enforcement, Metropolitan Police Department, Disaster Risk Management, Fire and Rescue Services as well as Traffic Services we are transforming our City so that communities including women and children, are in a safer environment.

“The work that Neighbourhood Watches do contributes significantly towards building safer communities in Cape Town. The members of the NHW dedicate their time and often some of their own resources towards ensuring that criminals do not become comfortable in our City.”

“Over the last decade, the City has invested millions of Rands to train volunteers and provide neighbourhood watch organisations with equipment like jackets, torches, bicycles, hand radios and radio base stations for their watch rooms and has partnered with these organisations to install and share information between CCTV camera networks. The reason we invest so much in our NHW’s because we have seen the positive impact that they are making in their communities and for the City at large. We value and thank them for all their hard work and time and encourage them to keep doing the excellent work that they do,” Alderman Smith said.

Western Cape Minister of Community Safety, Dan Plato, said:

“The Western Cape Government Department of Community Safety (DOCS) has in consultation with various role-players, including the SAPS and the City of Cape Town, created a “first of its kind” legal framework for NHW structures in the Western Cape. This provides legal legitimacy to all those NHW structures who are successfully accredited. Since we started with the process for  NHWs to apply for formal accreditation, almost 200 Neighbourhood Watches, representing (number) members across the province have been issued with their formal certificates of Accreditation.

“In September 2017, DOCS signed a historic Neighbourhood Watch Memorandum of Agreement with the City of Cape Town to co-ordinate our support for Accredited NHWs, across the city.

“The NHW Awards ceremony, the first under the new WCG-City partnership, will showcase our appreciation of our NHWs and their members as treasured safety partners.

“Across the province, our NHW volunteers care deeply about safety and  make a daily contribution to the safety of their communities.

“The different categories in the 2018 NHW Awards are designed to honour the many different ways in which NHW members contribute towards safety. This includes formal patrols, those who work closely with the various emergency services, who assist with social issues; who work with religious organisations and NGOs; or even those working closely with our schools.

“Every single contribution is valuable. We encourage every residents of the Western Cape to support and participate in their local Accredited NHW to help build our collective Neighbourhood Watch movement, standing united, Better Together.”

Accredited NHWs, and NHWs which have formally applied for Accreditation with DOCS, and have received formal notifications that their applications have been received, are eligible for the 2018 Neighbourhood Watch Awards.

Though the Awards, hosted jointly by the City of Cape Town and Western Cape Government, only cover the City of Cape Town metropolitan area, the Department of Community Safety envisage rolling out similar awards to Municipalities across the Province in near future.

The 2018 NHW Awards Information:

Award categories

Anyone can nominate an individual member or an entire NHW team. You can also nominate the same person or team for more than one award category, but will need to submit individual nominations for each of them.

Bronze Category: Neighbourhood Watch teams of Distinction

These awards will not be presented at the awards ceremony, and instead will be chosen from among the nominations and the judges’ experience during 2017.

• Community Service Excellence: for noteworthy excellence displayed in any form.
• Education Support Excellence: for excellence in support for school and scholar safety, in particular, support for the Department of Community Safety-led Walking Bus Programme.
• Skills Training Excellence: recognises the development of a wide range of skills for comprehensive community safety and support.
• Organisational Excellence: for excellence in NHW management that helps to create professional, capable and accountable neighbourhood watch teams.
• Operational Commitment: for exceptional and sustained operational commitment in partnership with the state safety, security and emergency agencies.

Silver Category: Individual Excellence Awards

• Mobiliser of the Year: for exceptional efforts to mobilise communities in support of safety.
• Skills Master of the Year: in recognition of exceptional skills relevant to NHW duties and community safety.
• Mentor of the Year: in recognition of a NHW that has gone to extraordinary lengths to nurture a next generation of capable, committed NHW teams.
• Inspiration of the Year: a NHW leader who has displayed inspirational public leadership, across several NHW areas, in support of community safety and the greater public good.
• Crime Fighter of the Year: for exceptional, selfless, professional and committed service, in the fight against the scourge of crime.

Gold Category: Leaders’ Choice

This is adjudicated by the Mayor, Minster for Community Safety and the South African Police Service Provincial Commissioner.

• Mayco Member and/or Mayor’s Outstanding Achievement Award
• MEC’s Outstanding Achievement Award
• SAPS Provincial Commissioner’s Outstanding Achievement Award

NHW teams of the Year

These are nominated and adjudicated by the Judging Panel.

• From Zero to Hero - Most Progress Award: in recognition of dramatic improvement by an NHW team, covering a range of functions, abilities and professionalism.
• Most Innovative Award: in recognition of innovative, progressive, smart and integrated use of technology, towards community safety.
• Broken Window Award: in recognition of exceptional efforts towards a clean, healthy and safe environment, in which communities can lead dignified lives.
• Above & Beyond Award: in recognition of exceptional efforts, above and beyond the call of duty, to address a community safety issue in support of the public good.
• Social Responsibility Award: in recognition of a deep commitment to address, mitigate and heal societal ills, towards healthier, inclusive and united communities.
• Courage in Action Award: in recognition of sustained NHW operations in the face of highly compromised community safety.
• NHW of the Year: the team that best represents exemplary commitment and values consistent with the broader NHW movement, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Western Cape Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town.

How to nominate

• Only NHW members or teams that are accredited with DoCS or who have formally submitted their application for accreditation can be nominated.
• Nominations can only be submitted online from Monday, 1 January 2018 – Wednesday, 31 January 2018 at 17:00.
• Late and email nominations will not be accepted.
• When completing your online nomination, you will need to provide a body of evidence to support the nomination. See examples of the type of evidence you can use here.
• To nominate an individual member click here.
• To nominate a NHW team click here.

Process

The NHW Awards for 2017 will be held on Friday, 23 February 2018.

Two judging panels will assess the nominations received from each of the four City areas. The panels will consist of representatives from the City, Department of Community Safety and the SAPS.

The finalists will be notified on 12 February 2018 and will receive an invitation to the awards ceremony.

For more information on the 2018 Neighbourhood Watch Awards, kindly contact us by email:

• Neighbourhood.Watch@westerncape.gov.za , or
• NHW.awards@capetown.gov.za