Residents of the Kirstenhof suburb in Kimberley have resorted to funding their own private security and installing a network of cameras, citing an untenable wave of crime they say has made them “easy targets” for criminals.
This community-led initiative comes in the wake of the latest Victims of Crime report from Statistics South Africa, which revealed a staggering 1.5 million incidents of housebreaking nationally for the 2024/25 period. Kirstenhof residents identify themselves as part of this grim statistic, feeling abandoned by formal policing structures.
Located between two expanding informal settlements, residents report that their security has been severely compromised. A spokesperson for the community described a relentless onslaught of criminal activity that forced them to act.
“We experience high levels of crime in this area,” one resident stated. “Everybody was stealing from us, murdering people, injuring people. They run into the graveyard [nearby]. It’s not easy to get them at night.”
Faced with a perceived lack of effective police response, approximately 120 families pooled their resources to hire private security and install a comprehensive camera surveillance system. The residents say they could no longer stand by while crime “spiraled out of control” around them.
While not a complete solution, the initiative is already yielding positive results. A community member reported that the crime rate has “definitely been reduced.”
“Comparatively speaking to the past year to now, we can see there are no longer so many reports as was before,” they added.
The situation in Kirstenhof reflects a broader national trend identified by crime experts. The report notes that high crime levels are compelling communities across South Africa to look beyond the South African Police Service (SAPS) for their safety.
A crime expert highlighted the severity of the issue by pointing to a telling detail: “The fact that in South Africa almost all the big police stations have private security… tells you that the level of safety has diminished but also the level of crime has skyrocketed.”
This observation references a past decision by SAPS to “insource” private security to guard its own stations, underscoring the pervasive nature of the country’s crime problem.
Despite the Stats SA report indicating a decline in some household crimes compared to the previous year, the residents of Kirstenhof say they remain vulnerable. Their newly formed neighbourhood watch is now encouraging other communities to be proactive in finding their own solutions to crime, advocating for a model of self-reliance in the face of a national crisis.
