“This is not helpful”: Commander addresses rumours of tension in African-Australian taskforce

Allegations of assault and thefts of money have surfaced in one of the associations on Victoria Police’s Australian-African Community Taskforce.

Neil Mitchell revealed this morning there are issues surrounding the leadership of the South Sudanese Community Association.

“One of the organisations involved has put out a public announcement talking about the level of division,” Neil said.

“They’re alleging theft and alleging threats of violence.”

Commander Stuart Bateson says there is one allegation of assault and police are aware of other allegations, but none have been officially reported.

“We’ve got one allegation of assault that we’re currently investigating,” Commander Bateson said.

“This is not helpful, certainly not.

“I think some of the issues that we’re trying to deal with are long term, we’ll be working through it for 12-18 months at least.”

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“We had a number of community organisations on this, we’ve got 18 on the taskforce,” Commander Bateson said.

“That is just one of the associations we’re working with, we’ve got a lot of good people working with us.”