Police Minister Bheki Cele arrived three hours late on Sunday for a public meeting in Hanover Park where residents told him it was time for the crime-plagued community to have its own police station.
About 200 people attended the meeting at Voorspoed Primary School to discuss crime in the area, including gang-relating shootings that have claimed 20 lives in the past three months, according to Hanover Park Community Police Forum spokeswoman Kaashiefa Mohamed.
Some arrived as early as 9am for the meeting to be held at noon, but Mr Cele only arrived at 3pm without explanation or apology.
Resident Dean Ramjoomia told Mr Cele he had wasted six hours of residents’ time He said people feared for their lives and nothing was being done about crime in the area.
“Why have you not brought 100 search warrants with you? You come into our communities with condolences and that means spitting into our communities’ faces. You have all the resources to eradicate organised crime, why is that not happening? People are suffering and fear for their lives. Why are you not doing anything?” he said.
Another resident, Jesmina Stemmet, said crime in the area was at its worst. The youth needed work to steer them away from joining gangs, but no one wanted to invest in the area because of the high crime rate.
“Shooting in the area has been heavy. It affects small businesses so development can’t happen. People are suffering. Our youth can’t find work so they go back into crime and drugs and ultimately gangsterism.”
Ashraf Gamieldien said police officers did not fill in case dockets properly and no officers at Philippi police station could speak or understand Afrikaans, the language most commonly spoken in Hanover Park.
“Our police stations are not helping people. Police don’t know how the community functions,” he said.
Wareldia Julius added: “Youth can’t get access to opportunities because of crime. Youth are running with guns. There is no work for them, and we can’t even create work for them.”
Rashida Davids said government departments needed to work together to tackle the social-ills that fuelled gangsterism.
“Social development is so important. That will help and change how children grow up. Social ills lead to school drop-outs and eventually murderers. I believe in second chances, but we need to look at the root of the problems in Hanover Park. People come out of jail and back into an environment not conducive for them, and the community is not ready to accept those people when they come back because they don’t know how.”
Provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile said that SAPS was working on getting Hanover Park a police station, and 30 extra police officers would be deployed to the area soon.
Everyone needed to work together to fight crime, he said, adding that while residents complained about a lack of staff at Philippi police station, mothers of gangsters protected them by hiding guns.
“It saddens me that there are children walking around who haven’t seen the inside of a school. School drop-outs are breeding grounds for gangs. We have to ensure that children go to school. Members from other provinces have been added to gang stations. They are deployed with the AGU (Anti-Gang Unit) in these areas. We hear you that you want us at schools, and we have a safe-schools programme. If that isn’t happening here, we will address it,” he said.
Mr Cele said that 2600 of 10 000 officers trained last year had been deployed to the Western Cape.
“You are requesting extra resources. We have done that. We are building more police stations,” he said, adding that crime stats for December last year pointed to a 14% drop in crime in the Western Cape.
However, when the crime stats for October to December 2023 were released in February this year, SABC News reported that the province recorded an 8.6% increase in murders compared to the same period a year earlier.
“Criminals come from our own houses,” said Mr Cele. “They are our kids, sons, husbands and boyfriends. They sleep in our beds. I’ve heard that mothers here hide the guns of gangsters after they use it to shoot. Remember that gun you are hiding has killed somebody’s child. That gun is needed for us to win that case. One day another mother will hide the gun that killed your son.”
He added: “Children not at school is not a job for police or government. Where is the parent? Parents have a responsibility towards their children. Let’s work together to keep kids safe.”
