NEWS

Gqeberha’s Community Information Centre looks back on a successful first five years.

It started small, with a very limited area of work that it focused on. But, over the past five years, the Community Information Centre (CIC) has grown in leaps and bounds.

Press release. 22 June 2021.

Ryan Britz, Gqeberha branch manager for Fidelity ADT explains: “There has always been a very basic goal in mind with this kind of facility. No matter what kind of assistance a member of the public needs, we wanted to ensure that they may get hold of it by calling this one central point of contact. This is why we first set up the CIC at our offices back in June 2016.

“The centre has exceeded our expectations through rapid growth and expansion by which it has served thousands of people throughout our metro. Residents have become familiar with the CIC and choose to report their concerns, no matter the nature of the call, to the CIC team.”

The centre’s operators are on duty around the clock, and address all calls by contacting the relevant authorities or private security teams, depending on the concern and the area involved. The CIC also engages and responds to over 150 WhatsApp groups which are communitybased initiatives, including neighbourhood watch groups, community policing forums or just general community groups. They assist with anything from municipal service deliveries, to missing persons, medical emergencies, or any type of crime complaint or request for law enforcement assistance.

“The CIC does a lot more than just respond to these kinds of calls for help. They also keep an eye on the growing network of CCTV and license plate recognition (LPR) cameras across the region. The coverage footprint for the CIC now also includes the Kouga region of Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp, and cameras in East London,” says Britz.

The CIC monitors over 50 LPR cameras along with 25 community CCTV cameras, across the metro and the Kouga region. It also keeps an eye on more than 135 social media community messaging platforms, while working hand-in-hand with more than 50 neighbourhood watch groups. The area covered is the entire metro and the Kouga region, which is around 150 square kilometres.

There have been many notable events or incidents to which the CIC responded, such as assisting with numerous drownings where prompt action saved lives, assisting missing persons and abandoned babies within the metro, using the LPR cameras to respond to cases of car theft, responding to large fires, and coordinating arrests with colleagues in the various neighbourhood watch groups.

Britz believes that this is just the beginning, and that there is still a lot more to come from the CIC.

“We firmly believe that this is only the beginning for the CIC and look forward to more growth and success in the future. We are continuously looking for new and innovative ways to improve our service delivery and to enhance the efficiency of the CIC team. We thank the community for all their support as we would not have been able to achieve this without their assistance, trust and commitment.”

Residents may contact the CIC directly on 086 12 12 210 or via WhatsApp on 073 766 7447.