In their efforts to fight crime, members of the community policing forum (CPF) in the Khayelitsha Sub District marched in various areas during the launch of its “Silence the Guns” awareness campaign on Saturday 12 October.
Various other community stakeholders, including SANCO, Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) and Metro Police, were also involved.
The Khayelitsha Sub District comprises various police stations, including Khayelitsha, Lingelethu, Harare, Makhaza, Lwandle, Strand, Macassar, Somerset West and Gordon’s Bay.
The Khayelitsha Sub District Commissioner Brig Mnoneleli Magobiyane described the march as a wake-up call for criminals operating within the precinct, that the various role-players and the community there were just not taking crime sitting down. He highlighted mass killings, extortion and carjackings as just some of the cases reported.
“The issue here, especially, is the extortion,” Magobiyane pointed out. “There are a lot of killing incidents that occur in this district, most of them (60%) with a gun. We want to silence these guns.”
He said the aim is to confiscate all guns that are in the wrong hands.Magobiyane said the march started near TotalEnergies garage at Khwezi and progressed via Site C, Site B, Khayelitsha, Litha Park and Harare on its way to Makhaza Police Station, passing all the Khayelitsha hotspots.
He said CPFs in Gordon’s Bay, Macassar and Strand also held their own marches in their respective areas.
“We are saying enough is enough! We want to squeeze the criminals out of our space.”
