Residents of Bellville south are afraid that gangsters will soon take over their neighbourhood if there’s no intervention from the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Community members said that gang shootings on weekends had increased, with no police vans in sight.
In 2017, the Bellville South Police Station was one of the police stations in the country where guns and ammunition went missing.
Community members in the area believe these guns are allegedly being used by criminals.
The residents reached out to the publication to tell their story, hoping that the national government would intervene.
“A few months back we had a group of gangs murdering a person. This person lives across the road from me. We have gangs shooting on each other,” said resident Natano Hines.
“We had someone that was hit with an axe… we had someone who was hit with the back of a shotgun,” he continued.
He has accused the police of not doing anything, but SAPS spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi has refuted these claims, urging community members to contact their local police commander to air their grievances.
Meanwhile, the Western Cape local government said that it would continue to engage with the national police commissioner to assist citizens in the province where there was a need for policing.
One community in Cape Town has urged the government to urgently intervene in crime-fighting initiatives to combat crime.
Bellville south is one of many areas in Cape Town battling the scourge of drug sales and gun battles between rival gangs.
Western Cape Community Safety and Police Oversight MEC Reagen Allen: “I continue to maintain that we need to see significant improvement in crime intelligence. To this end, I have engaged the SA police commissioner and will continue to do so. As to our efforts to work together, we have agreed to have an open-door policy.”
The legislature has condemned the crimes in Bellville south.
“The standing committee on community safety in the Western Cape has not visited the Belville South Police Station but we are very concerned by the increase in crime in that area and the lack of resources dedicated to that community,” Allen said.
The chairperson of the committee, Gillion Bosman, has called for more police resources in the area.
-EWN
In other news – Somizi’s rumoured fiancé Pholoso Mohlala welcomes his newborn baby – Photo
South African actor Pholoso Mohlala, who was rumored to be engaged to Somizi Mhlongo has welcomed a newborn baby with his ‘girlfriend’.
However, it seems that the report that the two are involved is not as Pholoso welcomes a newborn baby with his ‘girlfriend’. Mohlala took to his Instagram account on 1 July and posted a picture of his highly pregnant baby mama, Learn More