The newly appointed District Commander of the West Coast police district is excited about making a difference in the area.
Major General Sizakhele William Dyantyi is the first commander of the recently formed West Coast police district, which includes 25 local police stations. Formerly the Vredenburg police cluster included only 10 police stations in the area.
The 25 stations are Vredenburg, Saldanha, Langebaan, Hopefield, St Helena Bay, Laaiplek, Malmesbury, Piketberg, Porterville, Moorreesburg, Darling, Eendekuil, Riebeek-West, Redelinghuys, Vredendal, Clanwilliam, Citrusdal, Nuwerus, Lamberts Bay, Lutzville, Elands Bay, Vanrhynsdorp, Klawer, Graafwater and Doring Bay.
Since 2019 the South African Police Service started a nationwide transitioning process from the cluster model to the district model.
The district model ensures a clear plan of action in sight and is a more integrated and coordinated way of governing the police.
Dyantyi started in his new position as West Coast District Commander on 3 August. He is stationed at the Saldanha police office, but says this may be a temporary arrangement since they are still in the process of finding central and suitable office space to separate the district office from the Saldanha Police Station.
From his humble beginning in the South African Police Service in 1992 as an assistant constable in the Eastern Cape town of Elliot, Dyantyi worked and studied hard to get where he is today.
Over the past 30 years he held various positions at police departments and stations in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape, Laingsburg in the Karoo, Paarl in the Boland, Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Mitchells Plain and Green Point in the Cape Town metropole as well as Vredendal in Matzikama.
As he consistently attained higher ranks during his career spanning over three decades, he also developed himself through means of studying and achieving several tertiary qualifications in police practice and public administration at Technicon SA of which his highest qualification is a masters degree he achieved at the Southern Business School.
Before he traded his busy city life of the past few years for the rural West Coast, he was the cluster commander of Mitchells Plain and Nyanga.
Dyantyi’s vision for the West Coast is to create a safe and secure environment for all people.
The plan to see this vision come to fruition is standing on three practical pillars.
The first pillar is collaboration with all stakeholders in the fight against crime, such as law enforcement and traffic, but also the departement of Social Development, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, the National Prosecuting Authority and private security companies.
Secondly, a capacity for policing needs to be built up. Dyantyi says no recruitment drives and training took place over the past two years during the time of the pandemic.
“We lost people that we couldn’t replace,” he said. New recruiting in the area will target young people especially.
Dyantyi says it is also the plan to establish the West Coast’s own Public Order Police Service (Pops) since public unrest in the area is increasing. It takes too long for Pops to come from Paarl or Cape Town to the West Coast during times of violent protests.
The third pillar is to build capacity for community based policing and includes strengthening community policing forums and engaging the unemployed youth so that they will participate in safety and security efforts in their communities.
“If we do not create opportunities and activities for our young people, they will experiment with unlawful things and become criminals,” said Dyantyi.
“We need to invest in our future leaders and realise no man is an island. Everyone needs to know and keep an eye out for their neighbours, and care about doing their part for the safety of their community.
“Fighting crime without addressing the cause is like putting a plaster over a large wound. It won’t work.”
His family still lives in Cape Town, where his wife who is also in the police is the commander of the Table View Police Station.
The family may move to the West Coast at a later stage, or Dyantyi will simply commute between Cape Town and the West Coast, he explains.
He has four children – a girl and three boys, two of them adults, the younger two teenage boys born 11 months apart.
Besides work, Dyantyi says he is interested in gardening and agriculture.
When he retires one day, which is not going to be soon, he would like to have a little farm, keep some cattle and get his hands dirty.
“I’m not interested in commercial farming. I would like to do it for the fun of it, for leisure.”
