A former member of a Fish Hoek Neighbourhood Watch was given a slap on the wrist by the Simon’s Town Magistrate’s Court after being found guilty of assaulting a security guard.

Rob Freeman, who founded the Central Neighbourhood Watch in 2022, was charged with assault in February after he and a local security guard “got into a scuffle”.

Mr Freeman previously told the Echo that on Monday February 5, he and the guard had “hit shoulders” when walking past each other on Fish Hoek’s main road, and they “got into a scuffle”.

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesman Eric Ntabazalila said Mr Freeman had been found guilty of assault on Wednesday, June 26.

“He was cautioned and discharged,” Mr Ntabazalila said.

Since the assault in February, Mr Freeman has resigned as the “elected representative” of the Central Neighbourhood Watch which was dissolved in March after the Western Cape Provincial Community Police Board found that it had not followed the correct procedures during its establishment in 2022.

At the time, the Echo reported that the Western Cape Provincial Community Police Board’s dispute resolution committee concluded in a report, dated Monday March 11, that there were no minutes of the meeting indicating how the watch was established, there was not a properly mandated annual general meeting to elect the executive committee, certain members of the watch might have been acting unlawfully, and the watch had limited members and encroached on the boundaries of another watch.

The board suggested that the watch join up with the existing watch, Valley North, and operate within its boundaries as a street committee, or follow the correct process as prescribed by the Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety should it wish to remain a separate watch (“Call to scrap Central Watch”, Echo, Thursday March 21).

Following the verdict, Mr Freeman said he takes responsibility for what happened and that the confrontation was partly his fault.

He said he had bumped shoulders with the security guard to get his attention as he was not happy with the way security guards treated the homeless.

“I purposely bumped the shoulder of the young man to get his attention and he hit me with his fists. I did not expect a fight,” he said, adding that he had no regrets for his actions in Fish Hoek as he believed the multiple arrests and drug busts under his leadership during his two years as the elected representative for the Central Neighbourhood Watch speak for it self. Mach 1 Security guard Andre Hanekom said he does his job in compliance with the law and if he should ever act outside the boundaries of the law, the law must take its course. Mach 1 owner Manu Choudree said that Mr Freeman had made a similar accusation in court but “we rest in the court’s decision in the knowledge that the magistrate applied himself to all arguments and reached his decision in the fullness of his role.”

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