Residents reacted in solidarity with the victims of gang violence by coming out in prayer or peace at several public events last week.
Lentegeur police joined residents at a Peace Festival at Woodville Primary School, in Woodlands, on Saturday 12 July.
Lentegeur police spokesperson Const Navon van Houten said the event was driven by the sub-forum, in conjunction with Lentegeur Community Police Forum (CPF) and that several community leaders attended, including councillors.
Activities on the day included games and a holiday programme for youth.
“Station commander Col Rameshwarneth also engaged with the community and brought a message of hope to the youth of Woodlands,” he said.
On Sunday 13 July a prayer “carcade” moved between several Mitchell’s Plain suburbs.
Shahiem van Nelson, the chair of Save Mitchells Plain, which organised the event, said the motorcade was the second one which had been held on consecutive Sundays in response to the gang violence.
“We drove in convoy to the places where the shooting took place last week,” he said. “This is not about the gangsters, this is not about the perpetrators, this is not about the victims. The real victims are those that are suffering in silence in their houses, where these gunshots go off. The real victims are the elderly, who have given their lives to this country, who have contributed greatly to our communities, who are now suffering in silence.
“This was just to get out and tell them that they are not alone, that there are people who are praying with them, there are people who are praying for them, and that is the basis of this carcade that we are having every Sunday.”
“Next week we are continuing. Every Sunday we go into those areas and pray for those people, the real victims of the gang violence that is currently plaguing Mitchell’s Plain.”
Earlier last week Radio Tygerberg put a call out to its listeners to join them at a public prayer event at the Flower of Cape Town monument in Westridge Gardens on Wednesday 9 July.
The station’s Cisca Badenhorst said: “We simply want to lift up the area in prayer, especially those who have lost loved ones and the many residents who are living in fear.”
Badenhorst said the station’s listeners were also invited to join the residents in prayer.
Later on Wednesday the City of Cape Town held a Memorial Prayer Vigil at Shekinah Full Gospel Church. Event facilitator Councillor Avron Plaatjies said political parties and stakeholders met with police before the prayer service for a briefing with the station commander. They then attended the vigil for the victims of this mass shooting which was led by deputy mayor Eddie Andrews.
Mixed reviews on Leap Response
Western Cape MEC of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Anroux Marais, congratulated South African Police Service and Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) Officers for confiscating multiple firearms in recent weeks. She said over the past three weeks, more than eighteen illegal firearms were taken off the streets in communities severely affected by ongoing gang-related violence. Eleven of those firearms were confiscated in Mitchell’s Plain. “These coordinated efforts underscore the continued commitment of law enforcement agencies to work together in curbing gun violence,” she said.
“These successes are not only a testament to the dedication and bravery of our men and women in blue, but they help in making communities safer. Every firearm taken off the streets is potentially a life saved.” The most of the recent weapons seizures in Mitchell’s Plain were due to tip-offs, she said.
“I applaud the bravery of these residents who are taking a stand against criminals. I urge communities to continue supporting law enforcement agencies by reporting suspicious activities and illegal firearm possession. It is only through collaboration that we will be able to rid our communities of crime,” she said.
However, while Marais has praised the efforts by the Leap officers, Good party Secretary-General Brett Herron has criticised them saying the initiative has “no objective impact”. “The City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government claim to take safety seriously, yet they continue to pour billions into a failed safety plan, while doing little to address the root causes of violence,” he said.
“The Safety Plan is a crude boots-on-the-ground force multiplier strategy, in the form of Leap officers, and this massive investment in policing is having no objective impact. While the quality of our policing, and policing strategies, must be improved, policing alone will not eradicate the crime and gang violence that the people of the Cape Flats have lived with for far too long and which is evidently escalating,” he said.
According to Herron, the root cause of the violence on the Cape Flats is under-resourcing.
“The truth is that the living conditions in the apartheid era ghettos, which are almost exclusively the locations of this violence, have remained ghetto-like,” he said. “Until the City and Province confront the realities of spatial injustice, economic exclusion, and community abandonment, the killings will continue and the silence that follows them will echo even louder. Because four people should not be murdered on a Friday night and forgotten by Saturday morning.”
