Safety and security in the countryside!
This article is written purely on the basis of personal observations over the past 20 years.
My view is that crime is directly related to capita. Therefore the fewer the people the less the crime.
I think this theory holds true in most residential small holding regions as the locals either own the property or are involved in the domestic / labour of the property and therefore crime is in neither interest of any parties involved.
One can argue that criminals target farms in this country: This is true of farms as they are generally large and isolated and due to our past history there is still a degree of mistrust between our predominantly Afrikaaner farmers and labour – creating perhaps more susceptibility for labour to be coerced into letting criminals gain access to the farms. Even if this were not true, you will find labour cottages are often vast distances from the main farm house therefore isolating the two communities. This too was created by ergonomics from our past.
The opposite tends to apply to smallholdings as property owners, their neighbours and their labour all tend to live within 100 metres of each other and therefore have a constant reliance upon each other. Property owners will know each others labour force and labour will know who owns what property, forming a close knit community.
This degree of relience creates a natural form of security.
By all means don’t get me wrong: Vigilance, dogs and alarms are all neccessary evils in our society. As urban creep moves west of Port Elizabeth and transport is more readily available to the small holding areas there has been a greater infiltration of non-locals as people seek work further a field.
As a result of this Colleen Glen , Draaifontein , Murray Park , Kragga Kamma , Seaview , Deer and Bushy Park (to name a few) have introduced a concept called Farm Comm which is based on a principle much like a neighbourhood watch. The fundamental difference, however, to neighbourhood watch is that if you are a member of farm comm you have to be integrally involved in either the Security team, Medical team or the Fire team.
Each of these teams is led by a specialised and trained committee of which you are a member, and as such can be called upon at any stage to assist.
In addition, each farm comm member has a vhf radio on their property which gives them the means to be in constant communication with other members of their committee.
So – even more reason to move to the country!
Article written & supplied by Francis Coleman of Jacki Botha Properties