Big ups to the residents of Site B for standing up against crime in their area, particularly extortion.
On Saturday 20 July, the Khayelitsha Community Policing Forum, the police and other various stakeholders marched through the area distributing pamphlets with information against crime. They also encouraged the residents to report any crime-related incidents to the police.
Community leaders, who were part of the awareness campaign, expressed their unhappiness with crime. They indicated that they were tired of being bullied and terrorised by the criminals. The high levels of crime, including extortion, also affected service delivery, they said.
They stated that service delivery is affected because of extortionists.
Khayelitsha CPF PRO Zoliswa Yapi said ambulances together with the City and Eskom employees are reluctant to come into their areas to provide services because of crime. She said they are getting robbed in broad daylight. Whenever a government vehicle comes into the area to provide services it has to be escorted by the police.
I think what the CPF did was a great initiative to squeeze the space for hooligans.
Speaking out about the pain that they are enduring is a first step towards a healing process. The perpetrators must see that people are fed up with crime.
People are struggling to get essential services because of the few individuals who are terrorising the communities. The issue of extortion is broad and is affecting everyone, including the families of the perpetrators.
The communities need to stand up and shout instead of folding their arms and allowing the criminals to dictate to them.
Police alone can’t fight crime, they need our support. This is a do or die situation where we need to sacrifice for our lives for our children to be able to survive. Extortion is deep and has infiltrated many sectors in our societies which is why it is difficult to root it out. As long as we do these kinds of initiatives that expose them, one day they will be defeated.
People need to be smart when dealing with syndicate crime because they have no mercy. Church leaders must come to the fore and talk to the communities, then maybe these criminals will change to be better people one day.
