The Kraaifontein police Sector 1 sub-forum committee has called on Police Minister Bheki Cele to deploy the SAPS Tactical Response Team to Wallacedene.
This comes after ANC ward councillor Luyanda Mbele, 44, and his cousin Mzwandile Mathenjwa, 40, were gunned down in Ndeleni Street on Sunday October 21
(“ANC councillor gunned down in Wallacedene”, Northern News, October 24.
Committee spokesman Roto Sabelo said Mr Mbele’s death had shocked the community. It was a shameful blow to Kraaifontein, he said, coming so soon after the national police crime statistics, released in September, had dubbed the area one of the “worst places across the city” for violent crime.
According to the crime stats, Kraaifontein is ranked seventh among the top-30 stations across the country with the highest recorded murders and 17th for the highest recorded contact crimes.
Mr Sabelo said Mr Mbele and his cousin had been shot dead less than 2m from where a mobile 24-hour police office, manned by four officers, had been set up before being relocated to Scottsdene.
The mobile office, he claimed, had been moved without Kraaifontein SAPS, the community police forum or the Sector 1 sub-forum committee having been informed.
“Scottsdene is also an area that has numerous criminal activities happening, but it does not mean, (the mobile office) in Wallacedene had to be removed.”
He said Wallacedene needed its own mobile police office. The community had felt safer while it had been in the area, and crime had dropped, but the minute it had gone criminals “were back to their old tricks”.
“Residents felt like they could walk around freely, without having to watch their backs, but now that the station is gone, people are living in fear all over again,” he said.
Mr Sabelo said the committee would help Kraaifontein ind solutions to reduce crime.
“I have sent requests to Minister Bheki Cele to have the (mobile office) put back in the Wallacedene community,” he said, adding that he had also asked for the Tactical Response Team to do regular raids on drug houses in the area.
“We have 200 people who volunteer to patrol on weekends. These dedicated crime fighters risk their lives for a crime-free Kraaifontein.”
Kraaifontein Community Police Forum spokesman Clemen Solomons said community leaders, the CPF, Kraaifontein SAPS and the Sector 1 sub-forum committee would meet later this week to discuss crime.
Neither Kraaifontein SAPS nor Mr Cele’s spokeswoman, Reneilwe Sereroid, responded to questions.
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