Chair of chairs of Nellmapius Community leaders Teenage Maluleke expressed relief that people working as school patrollers have finally received their fingerprints from the Silverton Police Station after experiencing long delays in this regard.
“We received complaints from several CPF school patrollers that though they have been fingerprinted a long time ago, their fingerprints have not been released back to them; thus making it difficult for them to continue working at schools because everyone working as a school patroller must submit their fingerprints at the school they are working at, so as to make sure that they don’t have criminal records and are therefore fit to work as patrollers at schools,” said Maluleke.
He revealed that although the fingerprints had been available at the Silverton Police Station for some time now, the authorities at the station had refused to release the said fingerprints because they had received instructions from somebody who is influential in the community who had ordered them not to release the said fingerprints.
“But on Monday we went to the Silverton Police Station as Nellmapius community leaders and managed to secure the fingerprints which we subsequently handed to the relevant individuals,” he said.
“We want our schools to have proper security personnel and no one can work as a school patroller without having been vetted, so the fingerprints are very crucial in the appointment of school patrollers,” explained Maluleke.
According to Maluleke, the school patrollers were fingerprinted last year in January but their fingerprints were not released to them, and they were fingerprinted again in February and even thereafter their fingerprints were not released back to them.
It was only after their intervention on Monday that the fingerprints were eventually handed to their owners.
He said the chairperson of the Silverton CPF is the one who had instructed the police station not to release the fingerprints back to the school patrollers.
Apparently the said CPF chairperson is on a witch-hunt against Nellmapius school patrollers.
Maluleke also revealed that the said CPF chairperson evidently has a vested interest in the hiring of school patrollers as he apparently gives fingerprints to some school patrollers that he favours while blocking the release of the fingerprints of school patrollers who are not his acquaintances and that he (Silverton CPF Chairperson) is the one who offers his favourite folks contracts to work as patrollers at various schools in the area.
“We are mindful of the fact that not everyone can be hired as patrollers but our concern is that everyone who has been fingerprinted must be handed their fingerprints back without any delay whatsoever,” said Maluleke.
“Our job is to assist the community in times of crisis, we are not CPF members but when CPF members came to us regarding their plight in terms of unreleased fingerprints, we came to their rescue,” he said.
He said the local Nellmapius CPF had tried several times to get the fingerprints released without any success, but through their support as community leaders the fingerprints were finally released to their owners.
Meanwhile other residents in Nellmapius have accused the said CPF acting chairperson Eddie Malebe of the following:
1.Unconstitutionally assuming the position of CPF chairperson after Sidney Gordon resigned as the chairperson. 2.Extortion whereby it is said that he, together with some members of the SAPS collect money from foreign-owned spaza shops.
3.Preventing the holding of re-elections for CPF members after the resignation of Sidney Gordon.
4.Preventing the Silverton Police Station from handing out fingerprints to their rightful owners, thus making it difficult for them to work as patrollers at schools.
5. Interfering in the hiring of school patrollers.
The complainants expressed a sigh of relief that re-elections will finally be held in sector 1 and 5 of their area on Friday 6 June after Malebe had tried to block the said elections for some time now.
In his response to allegations levelled at him, CPF chairperson Eddie Malebe responded as follows:
“As acting Silverton CPF chairperson I don’t take fingerprints because that is the prerogative of the police; I don’t control the police but I work with the police and I only facilitate the process of taking fingerprints.”
“Regarding allegations of me extorting money from foreign-owned spaza shops, my response is that he who alleges must prove, otherwise these allegations would amount to defamation of character and I will deal decisively with those who have made the said allegations against me,” he said.
“I am the acting CPF chairperson because I was serving as Deputy Chairperson after being elected in 2022 and when Sidney Gordon resigned recently, I assumed the position of acting chairperson as per the rules of the CPF Constitution,” explained Malebe.
“Not everyone can be a patroller because those found to be having criminal records after the fingerprinting process has been completed would automatically be disqualified,” said Malebe as he in the processes denied that he has a vested interest in the deployment of patrollers at various schools in Nellmapius.
“Those people who are making allegations against me don’t know the Constitution and protocol of the CPF; they don’t want to lead, they want to eat,” he said.
Malebe revealed that the petition which was compiled against him was found to be fraudulent as those who had compiled it were found to have used people’s names and signatures without their consent.
He said one of the CPF members known as Caro was rumoured to have been involved in the murder of a certain person but that they as CPF never entertained those untested allegations but instead decided to let the law take its course.