Faith march calls for action against crime
About 100 people joined an anti-crime march led by Christian and Muslim preachers through the streets of Belgravia on Sunday.
The march started at the Lutheran Church in Belgravia and proceeded through Belgravia, stopping at crime hot spots along the way, including the Vlei shanty town.
Children of all ages were being pulled into drugs and crime, said Pastor Owen Petersen, from the Emmanuel Full Gospel Church in Belgravia.
“It seems that all forms of Godly consciousness has left the minds of people. We want parents to be proud of their children again. We pray for peace and order in our communities again, and that this will once again be a God-fearing nation.”
Shootings in the Athlone area had subsided in the past few weeks, but murders and attempted murders remained top crimes in the area, said Captain Louis Solomons, the head of visible policing at Athlone police station.
Residents should be the “eyes and ears of the police”, he said.
“We want to bring the community, the community police forum and police together so that we can fight crime together. We must involve God in our plans. Crime will always be there, but we can work to keep the community safe. Without the community giving us information, we can’t do anything. To protect them, we must know who is committing the crime.”
Athlone Community Police Forum spokeswoman Pat O’Connor, said: “There’s no use we complain about this and that but there’s no spirituality in it.”
Fred Mias, 58, of Bridgetown, said drug-dealing and shootings over drug turf were key problems in the area.
“People are fed up with what is happening. You can hear by the way that people speak that sooner or later people will start taking the law into their own hands.”
Josephine van Niel, 76, of Parktown, said the government needed to take action to stop the murders, rapes and child killings in the area.
“More of the children are being threatened at school to do all sorts of things. It really depends a lot on what the reaction and discipline of parents are. It really starts at home.”
