It was deemed a historical day when community leaders joined forces in Mitchell’s Plain to officially launch a new missing persons unit. Known as The Collective Missing Persons Unit, its launch was held at Lentegeur SAPS on Wednesday.
Its founders include; Abie Isaacs, Byron De Villiers, Lynn Phillips, Sandy Schuter and Lucinda Evans.
One of the organisation’s founders Lucinda Evans explains why this is a historical day. pic.twitter.com/Vku1sxQkXN
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Collectively, they have formed a unit comprising 33 volunteers who will be heading to the streets to find missing persons and help fight the scourge of gender-based violence.
READ MORE: Cape community leaders join ties to form new missing persons unit
The team highlighted the high levels at which children disappear in the Western Cape. Abie Isaacs, who is attached to the Cape Flats Safety Forum said the volunteers are ready to hit the ground running:
“The statistics have proven over the years that is only in the Western Cape where there’s a certain period of the year where we see a sudden increase of children going missing,” said Isaacs.
Isaacs has been working as a crime fighter since 1985.
THE KEY OBJTECTIVE
“Our ultimate objective is that we will go out there and do the necessary search and we will stick to the protocol, and the protocol is the standard operating procedure for missing children. Colleagues have said it. Our partners have said it, SAPS will continue to be the leading agency until otherwise described by the South African Police Service, so we will take instructions from them.”
The initiative has been in the pipeline for the past 5 months. Isaacs insisted that the unit is not attempting to compete with similar entities, and are happy to work with other organisations, as the priority is the safety of those they are helping.
A FORCE MULTIPLIER
Commenting on the force multiplier was NPO Action Society’s Kaylynn Palm. Palm said the majority of missing children are murdered.
“We’ve seen 285 children being killed over a period of three months (October 2023 – December 2023). If children go missing and they are not found, they are possibly being killed or being found killed,” said Palm.
At the event, volunteers were honored with their first aid responder certificates, which are valid for two years. At the end of this period, they will then do a refresher course. The eager participants also received safety boots which will aid them when they conduct their searches on the various terrains.
