Join a WhatsApp group in your street

Being a member of a WhatsApp group in your street or in the whole suburb (like the ‘I Love Emmarentia group’) is an easy way to check if you are the only one on the street without water or power, and whether someone has reported the issue or if you need to, and what’s the progress.

These groups have helped re-unite missing pets with their owners, have become a forum to warn other residents around security issues (eg. the increased mugging of pedestrians in the suburb for their cellphones, the theft of a car) and are a good way to find a reliable plumber, tiler, gardener or whomever you need.

There’s another reason why it’s important to belong to a WhatsApp group. Since last year ERA has been piloting a security initiative with key security companies in the area.

Each time there is a report of a security incident by a resident on any one of Emmarentia’s different WhatsApp groups, members of the PPP WhatsApp group who are on these groups, pick up these reports and post them to the PPP group.  The security companies then take action, if they have not already heard of the incident and in the case of vehicle theft, forward the car details to their other branches.

Just recently a resident spotted two men jumping into his neighbour’s yard. He knew his neighbour was on holiday. He alerted his WhatsApp group who  alerted PPP and Beagle Watch and CAP managed to apprehend the suspects and hand them over to police.

Find below some of the WhatsApp groups in our suburb. WhatsApp the number given to join.

W88 – Emmarentia Council whatsapp group

Councillor Nicolene Jonker has created a whatsapp group to deal with service delivery issues so that she can reach Emmarentia residents more easily. Here she posts notices from the different CoJ entities, CoJ notices while residents can also post questions and clarifications on this whatsapp group.

A word of caution on WhatsApp:

Don’t share photographs, videos of suspected criminals on whatsapp groups (or any social media platform). You will be contravening Section 69 of the SA Police Service Act and will be liable to a fine or imprisonment of up to 12 months.