In an attempt to curb criminal activities in their area, community members of Nancefield in Musina have joined forces and formed a committee that is responsible for patrolling the streets during the night.

Committee leader Eric Ramuthivheli said the community had had enough of crime and decided to start an operation called Vimba Guma-Guma, or "catch the thief". The operation started last month, and men now patrol the streets. “Crime was becoming too high our area. We realized that the police cannot be everywhere that crime is happening, so we decided to stand up and fight against this cancer that is destroying our community. We do so by patrolling the streets every night as it is no longer safe to walk out there,” said Ramuthivheli.

Ramuthivheli said the committee members carried licensed fire-arms when patrolling in order to protect themselves from criminals. “When we find these criminals, we arrest them and hand them over to the police,” said Ramuthivheli. "Since the operation started, we have made several arrests and the crime rate has gone down."

However, the committee is concerned that there is still too much crime along the Limpopo River, the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. Besides incidents of robbery and assault against Zimbabwean nationals who cross from their country to South Africa via Musina, Ramuthivheli said he was concerned about the high number of rape incidents happening there.

“Most of the women are raped along the river. Our concern is that most of them contract the HIV virus from these rapes and when they come here, to Musina, they have relations with local people, which means that the virus will spread in this community,” said Ramuthivheli.

Police spokesperson in the area WO Peter Mudau hailed the community for taking the initiative. Mudau said there were lots of hot spots in Musina which made it difficult for them to curb crime. “Criminals wait for a police van to pass, so that they can start their activities. This makes it very difficult for us as we cannot be everywhere, but this initiative by the Nancefield community is more than welcome.”

Mudau said he was going to approach other community members in Musina to start a similar operation through the Community Policing Forum. He said police vans were being dispatched throughout different sections of Musina.