Disgruntled Palmview residents have formed a group which aims to address crime and other burning issues such as service delivery in the Palmview community. The group, called Concerned Residents of Palmview (CROP) was formed in April 2021 after the residents began noticing an increase in violent crimes in some parts of Palmview.
According to CROP spokesperson, Denny Veeran, a resident was stabbed and robbed of his belongings as he returned home from work while a lady was robbed and injured in a separate incident last week. “We have noticed a rapid increase in crime in the area; however statistics have not been made available to us. CROP was formed as a group to assist the community in holding the elected officials accountable for service delivery that they are responsible for and to become a channel of communication to these relevant individuals in order to speed up these processes, some of which are long standing,” said Veeran. Veeran said CROP consisted of new and old residents of Palmview, some of whom have been in the area for more than 20 years. “CROP is a non-profit, apolitical, a-religious organisation that consists of members who have only the best interests of the community at heart and have over the years noticed the serious decline in service delivery in the community which has led to the serious deterioration of the area in terms of high by-law violations, increase in crime and prostitution.”
He said CROP was looking at undertaking a few projects in the area with a clean-up to enhance the image of Palmview in the pipeline as the first initiative of the group. “We want to create awareness around various issues plaguing our community, engage and ultimately bring Palmview together as a safe, clean and united place to live. We would like to create a knock-on effect and hope that we succeed in our proposed projects so that other communities can also follow in a similar path,” added Veeran. Residents can get in touch with CROP by emailing whatever issues they may have to concerns.crop@gmail.com.
