JMPD rewards scholar patrollers

25 September 2015

 

Thulani Maseko, a Grade 6 learner at Nka-Thuto Primary School in Dube, Soweto, enjoys helping other schoolchildren to safely cross the road so much that he wants to become a traffic officer one day.

 

Twelve-year-old Thulani has for a number of years now been serving the local community as a scholar patroller.

 

He was one of several Johannesburg learners – and educators – who were presented with certificates and medals at a Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) award-giving ceremony at Wembley Stadium in Turffontein on Wednesday September 23 in recognition of their dedication to helping schoolchildren to safely cross the road.

 

“Doing this has taught me to respect the rules of the road and other road users. I hope to be a traffic officer when I finish school one day,” he said.

 

The occasion was attended by officials of the City of Johannesburg’s Public Safety Department, the Gauteng Department of Community Safety and other stakeholders. One of the recipients, Cathy Makapane, an educator at WH Coetzee Primary School in Rosettenville, said scholar patrols played an important role in ensuring that learners were safe.

 

Makapane said there was heightened traffic congestion around schools every morning and afternoon as parents, school buses and taxis dropped off or collected the learners.

 

“It is during these critical times that our teams of scholar patrols go out and control both human and vehicular traffic,” she said.

JMPD Spokesperson Edna Mamonyane each learner travelled to and from school almost 200 times a year.

 

“That creates a challenge not only for us as traffic officers but also for the learners themselves, as well as the educators, parents, motorists and bus and taxi operators,” Mamonyane said.

 

“It is for this reason that training and capacitating educators and learners to police themselves is key.”

 

School patrols take place 20 minutes before school starts and last for 20 minutes after the end of the school day. JMPD officers visit schools three to four times a year to train scholar patrollers on rules, regulations and conduct.

 

The patrollers are provided with identifiable uniform to wear when performing their duties. These include bips, jackets and caps. They are also provided with sign poles, stop-sign boards, cones and whistles. Their leader is given a book and a pen to record offending motorists. The information is handed over to JMPD to follow up.