STRAND – The DA’s police oversight spokesperson says Sunday’s (27 September) mass shooting in Lwandle highlights chronic under-resourcing at the station.

A total of 10 people were killed and 11 injured when gunmen opened fire at a shisanyama in Vulindlela Street at 01:46. Provincial police commissioner Lt Gen Sizakhele Dyantyi has established a multidisciplinary team led by serious violent crime detectives to investigate, but no arrests have been made.

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Benedicta van Minnen, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Western Cape’s spokesperson on police oversight and community safety, says she is saddened by the loss of life.

“My condolences to their friends and family,” she says.

She commends Dyantyi’s response but says she has been beating the drum about the need for more resources at the Lwandle station.

In June she conducted an oversight visit to the station where she found just 17 detectives, each carrying an average caseload of 141 cases. The officer-to-resident ratio for the precinct stands at approximately 1 to 926, a figure described as alarming in a community that regularly contends with murder, robbery, drug-related offences and gender-based violence.

The latest quarterly crime statistics indicate that Lwandle has the most concentrated violent crime within the Helderberg basin. The station ranks within the top 30 for contact crime cases in the province, which is highlighted by 21 murders.

“Lwandle is the 18th most dangerous precinct in the province, it needs more resources,” Van Minnen says.

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She recalls talking to acting station commander capt Ntikelelo Dada during her June visit, who had already raised the alarm about local entertainment venues throughout the precinct being a hotbed of extortions and shootings.

“What the station needs is preventative policing that protects residents, but they lack the support to do so,” Van Minnen says.

She has reaffirmed her position that the station needs to be upgraded from its current status to a colonel-led station, which would increase staffing levels and operational capacity.

Provincial police have confirmed that there have been no new developments at the time of publication.

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