If you were a foreign tourist, or a Prawn from another planet, you might think there was something a little strange about these boards that appear every couple of blocks in our pretty, tranquil suburbs.
They're Crimeboards.
Sponsored by security companies, armed-response brigades, and community watch organisations, with a nod to the local cops at the top, they're a way of spreading crime-prevention awareness, and chalking up the latest incidents of neighbourhood crime that somehow weren't prevented.
By the time the chalk is applied to the board, of course, everyone in the neighbourhood will already have heard of the crime in question, at least partly because of those squealing alarms and woofing hounds that keep us from our slumber at two in the morning.
Still, these Crimeboards do serve a handy notification function and help to engender a sense of communal spirit in places where the walls are high and few venture beyond them on foot.
I think these boards would also come in handy in the event of a Global Thermonuclear War, during which the Internet, the cellular networks, the Telkom "infrastructure" and all other forms of everyday communication were destroyed.
Actually, come to think of it, if you were a Prawn from another planet, you probably wouldn't find anything strange about these boards. Because you'd be on them.
*PS: If you don't have Crimeboards in your pretty, tranquil suburb, it probably means they've been stolen. Please contact your local SAPS branch or armed-response organisation.
Sent from my iPhone
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