Cafda community leaders are asking the police and the City of Cape Town to intervene in the gang violence in the area.
Over the past month and a half several people have been killed and injured in gang-related shootings.
On Thursday July 12 community leaders met with police and ward councillor Shanen Rossouw to address the issue of gang violence and to try and come up with a contingency plan.
Ms Rossouw said Cafda had been classified a red zone and service delivery had been halted after an Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) worker was robbed.
“Law enforcement or police need to escort City workers if something needs to be fixed. Drains are blocked, street lights are out and can’t be fixed because workers are scared to come into the area,” she said.
Ms Rossouw encouraged residents to get on board and be part of neighbourhood watches and street committees.
“Our people are dying. We can’t just complain anymore. We need to be proactive and stand together. We need the community’s assistance. I will provide radios to schools, street committees and other organisations so that we can have a plan in place.
Lavender Hill community worker Lucinda Evans, who is also chairperson of the Mitchell’s Plain CPF cluster, said a task team was needed in Cafda.
“There are no safety structures in Cafda and no community mobilisation. There are no neighbourhood watches, block or street committees. This needs to be addressed,” she said.
Jan Alexander, Steenberg station commander, said drive-by shootings were becoming the norm in the area.
“These gangs come in to area, shoot and leave very quickly. The descriptions we get from the community about the vehicles are very vague. We need more witnesses to come forward so that we can investigate and arrest the perpetrators.
“We need the community’s support. We need all organisations’ support to be able to work against gangsterism and the gang violence,” said Colonel Alexander.
He said the police were working on a four-pillar approach to deal with the gang violence. These pillars were operations, community assist-
ance, investigations and intelligence.
Lieutenant Colonel Adriaan Saulse agreed and said the community needed to be proactive.
“We can be successful if the community assists us. The residents are the ones with first hand information so we need them to tell us who the gangsters are, who the shooters are and then we can act on that. We cannot do our jobs if the community doesn’t give us informa-
tion,” said Lieutenant Colonel Saulse.
Cafda community worker and resident Aubrey Robinson said just talking about the issue was not helping.
“We sit in in these meetings but nothing is being done. We can talk till we’re blue in the face but we need action from law enforcement agencies, government and the community.
“Police are counting on the community to give them information but people are scared because they could be targeted. Police need to be more proactive,” said Mr Robinson.
He said shots were being fired in the area every day.
“There are shootings daily at all times of the day. Police need to station a van in the area so that police could respond immediately when there are shootings. All organisations, government spheres and law enforcement spheres need to get together to address the issue of gang violence because innocent people are being shot and young men are losing there lives,” said Mr Robinson.