Kensington residents tackle crime

Led by the I Love Kensington Association, Kensington residents are standing up to fight crime and environmental degradation in the suburb.
MEMBERS of the I Love Kensington Association are appealing to the suburb's residents to stand together and fight crime in order to make the area one they can be proud to call home.

A street in Kensington, with jacarandas in full bloomA street in Kensington, with jacarandas in full bloom“As a suburb like many others around South Africa, Kensington is constantly dealing with crime, grime and environmental issues and it has become increasingly clear that the only way in which we can effectively tackle these issues is to involve more residents in places where the issues are most prevalent,” says Gaynor Paynter from the I Love Kensington Association (ILKA).

The ILKA was born out of the Kensington Residents Association and comprises proud residents wanting to make the suburb a safer and more diverse place to live. The focus of ILKA is primarily on uplifting the suburb and as such is made up of various sub-committees, including environmental, infrastructure and security.

“Lately there have been crime and infrastructure-related issues such as household robberies and extended power outages due to extreme weather, and the need to work more closely is increasing,” Paynter explains.

The best way to resolve these problems is through collaboration, she says, which will take the form of area committees. “ILKA wants to become more hands-on when it comes to dealing with residents’ issues, but this is not possible without greater participation.”

There are numerous ways that interested residents can get involved, the easiest of which is to email ILKA at kensington2094@gmail.com. “We will provide a map of Kensington identifying boundaries of each area, made up of a small number of properties,” she says. “Each block will be responsible for identifying their crime, grime and environmental related issues.”

To report issues, residents will be able to use Mobilitate, a free website which is already being used by groups in Kensington. “The site facilitates the logging of issues, thus ensuring that a record is kept of what needs to be dealt with.

“These issues are accessed from Mobilitate by the Council and can be easily reported on, increasing the need for our local councillors to be accountable,” she says.

An ILKA executive committee member will be assigned to each area within the suburb, and they will act as a representative and liaise with councillors to resolve outstanding issues. “There is currently one such area running successfully using this concept in the Blenheim Street and Cambrian Road part of Kensington, covering six or seven roads,” she says.