5-yr-old kids to fight crime

2008-09-26 20:14

Thabisile Khoza

Evander - Mpumalanga police are targeting children as young as five in the fight against crime.

This week, members of the Evander police station in Mpumalanga visited five pre-schools to encourage about 500 children to be upstanding citizens and resist becoming criminals when they grow up.

"Our main focus was to encourage pre-school children to stay away from danger as they are not aware of the inherent dangers around them," said Constable Sibusiso Mbuli.

The police put on a play for them and the children were taught about dagga, illegal cigarettes, the dangers of knives.

One little girl, Nombuso Vilakazi, five, recited a poem about drugs.

The children also went to the station to see how cases are reported and what a docket looks like.

"We also showed them some of suspects in the prison cells," he said.

The children were showed the children how sniffer dogs do their job.

"We put dagga in one child's pocket and it was so quiet when the dog sniffed him out," he said.

The station started the outreach project in September last year and the number of participating children had tripled since then, said Mbuli.

Next month, the children will be taken to a prison.

- African Eye