Heideveld residents march for peace

Hundreds of Heideveld residents gathered on Sunday to march for peace in the area which has been plagued by gang violence.

The march on Sunday March 24 was hosted by various churches and other stakeholders including Manenberg SAPS and Heideveld Community Police Forum (CPF).

Station commander of Manenberg SAPS, Colonel Sedrick Hermanus, said residents are traumatised and living in fear after experiencing daily shootings.

Colonel Hermanus said police needed residents to register as police informers and inform the police about who the shooters are.

He said Heideveld had been identified as a hotspot area for gang violence in the Manenberg policing precinct.

He said that gangsterism and substance abuse were spilling into school grounds.

“We want to mobilise the community and make them understand that they also have a role to play, and stand together to fight against this. They know what is going on in the areas and they know who the shooters are. We encourage the community to register as informers, there is a reward for the information. We value the information because this is the only way we can stop the gang violence. We want to encourage the communities to stand together, and work in partnership with the police and not against the police. We want to make it a better place and a safer area for everybody,” he said.

Heideveld Community Police Forum chairwoman Vanessa Adriaanse, said parents needed to take responsibility for their children because discipline started at home. She said when neighbours complained about unruly children their parents fought with the neighbours instead of disciplining their children. This, she said, led to teenagers who joined gangs and parents who still didn’t acknowledge their children’s wrong-doings.

“We cannot sit at home and not be part of the march and expect God to do his part. They are vandalising all our places even the churches. How do you get to that point? How do you as a mom feel knowing your child did that? Our seniors are being robbed on the way to their social groups, robbed of their bags and their pensions. We want to show the gangsters love today. We cannot wait on SAPS anymore. They are understaffed and they serve so many areas. We have to stand together as a community and look past the politics. The children in this community do exactly what they want to. We don’t want care who it is but we are saying we don’t want to pick up the next body in Heideveld. We are non-judgmental but also unapologetic and we are saying genoeg is genoeg, en die mense van Heideveld is moeg,” she said.

Pastor Vivian Jansen from the Uniting Reform Church said residents were at their wits’ end about gang violence and didn’t know what to do anymore.

The march was organised to give residents hope.

“We are trying to be pro-active and see if we can bring back hope to Heideveld. We will do prayers at various hotspots in Heideveld. Many young people are losing their lives and we also have a number of break-ins at schools and churches. We want to see if we can bring about some change and a positive impact,” he said.

Manenberg Community Police Forum chairman Vernon Visagie said dead bodies were picked up at least once a week in the area in violence-related incidents. He said that Heideveld residents were united against gangsterism.

“We need to take a stand. The churches have decided that they cannot remain silent. We need to do something abut the things taking place in our community,” he said.