Church collects coins, drug tip-offs

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Durban - Churches in Wentworth have come up with an innovative way to encourage the community to come forward with useful information related to drug and alcohol abuse: anonymous tip-offs in the collection plates.

Pastors made this pledge on Sunday at the newly launched Inter-church Social Action Alliance Campaign (Isaac), which falls under the umbrella community action group Communities Building Credible Ownership (CBCO) KZN.

CBCO aims to curb the problem of substance and alcohol abuse in Wentworth.

?All you have to do is write down the time, date and other details, and we will collate the information and send it to the police,? said Reverend Cierigh Samaai.

Although police statistics show there was a drop in drug-related crime from 610 in 2010 to 525 last year, there was a feeling that drug crimes had increased in the past few months.

?Working alone will not solve the problem. We have to come together as a family [SAPS, metro police, NGOs and religious organisations] to fight this evil,? said Colonel Deon Singh, who represented the police at a meeting of the organisation on Sunday.

?As community leaders, we have to accept that this threat to our children is coming from within our own community,? he said.

Pastor Dennis Labistour said they had invited public officials to the meeting to form a partnership between the government and civil society.

?In recent months, the community has seen an increase in substance abuse with drugs and alcohol, which have been sold freely, resulting in many youngsters involved in theft and robbery and some injured and killed by intoxicated youth,? Labistour said.

Premier Zweli Mkhize visited Independent Newspapers earlier this month to collect anonymous information sent in by Post newspaper readers on the whereabouts of drug dealers and operations in suburbs in the province.

He had said his team would use the information and promised that residents of the hardest hit areas would see a noticeable police presence in those regions over the next few weeks.

Mkhize?s spokesman, Ndabezinhle Sibiya, said the premier had identified Wentworth as one of the hot spots of drug-trafficking and would meet community leaders in the next three weeks.

?It is the root of all social ills, so this is an endeavour that must be supported by all government departments as well as the community,? he said.

kamcilla.pillay@inl.co.za

Daily News

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/church-collects-coins-drug-tip-offs-1.1403165

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