Pretoria -The police need to take drastic action to put an end to tavern shootings and gender-based violence.
The call was made by ANC members who submitted a memorandum to Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale and SAPS management at the Sunnyside police station as part of multiple demonstrations that took place yesterday.
They called on police to take decisive and effective action to curb killings in places of entertainment and violence against women.
Mathale was asked to come up with a technical response to deal with criminality in Tshwane.
The marchers said Sunnyside and Pretoria West had become safe havens for undocumented foreign nationals who masqueraded as businessmen.
According to them, these individuals dealt in drugs and were responsible for hijacking buildings and robbing young students who reside in the areas.
The march was attended by various structures of the party, including the ANC Youth League, ANC Women’s League, civic movements and student leaders.
The deputy minister was told that Sunnyside and Pretoria West had been taken over by foreign nationals.
Manyasha Saintjay, the ANC acting inner-city co-ordinator, said he understood police believed the tavern killings appeared to be coincidental instead of collaborative.
However, he said the incidents could be collaborative efforts to cause instability, given the frequency at which they were occurring.
Malebo Lephinka said: “We as a community feel betrayed by the SAPS for failing to tackle these horrendous crimes effectively.
“The laxity reduces the SAPS as wittingly and/or unwittingly being enablers of the crimes that we are facing each moment and each day.
“The Freedom Charter articulates peace, safety and security. It is sad that this assurance is reduced to being a shelved document gathering dust.
“We feel unsafe and we are in fact and indeed unsafe. Figures do not lie. Statistics on crimes against women and children are clear.
“Gender-based violence is thriving, drugs are sold on every corner of our streets, yet our police officers are turning a blind eye to these.
“There have been mass killings in and around the inner-city zone. What is the plan to counter these horrendous killings? Is there any plan? SAPS has crime intelligence services; How then do all of these gangs thrive unnoticed? We refuse to be protected by reactive police. The death of one person is one too many.
“Cars are stolen, houses are broken into and there is unimaginable numbers of hijackings of both vehicles and buildings. We are not free in our country, which is supposedly free and democratic.”
Mathale told the crowd that he appreciated them coming to deliver the memorandum because communities were the most critical members of society who could advance the effort to fight crime.
“We are ready as police and we have already responded appropriately in other areas where lawlessness is emerging.
“It is going to be an ongoing programme to deal with criminality in former areas of mining,” he said.
Pretoria News