Thugs, public drinkers and law breakers are being warned! This is a clear message from members of the Thohoyandou SAPS, who now use bicycles to patrol the town. The dedicated police officers were spotted by Mirror while patrolling around the town on Friday last week.

Regional police spokesperson Adv Ailwei Mushavhanamadi told Mirror that the initiative of using bicycles is all about visible policing and rendering efficient policing services to the members of the public. "We will definitely win this war against crime but we need community support. It is now time to take the service to our people instead for our people to hunt for us at the police stations. We are always there in any corner of the town, hence, discouraging our people to do away with crime."

Mushavhanamadi added that the bicycles will assist in the places where police vehicles could not access. "There are some secluded places in town where our vehicles cannot access. It is in those areas where most of the criminal activities take place. We will use the bicycles to access those places and this will be the easier way of winning the war against crime."

Mushavhanamadi urges community members to cooperate with the police officers on bicycles, to fight crime. "Most of our people respect the police officers only when they are in police vans. These bicycles mean that these dedicated police officers do their jobs easily, for your own protection."

One of the community members interviewed by Mirror in town, Mr Richard Mmbi, said he was impressed by the dedication of the police officers on bicycles. "There is no doubt that our town will be a much safer place because of the visibility of the police. We will do our best to assist them in the war against crime."