Dear Editor
This weekend on the Cape Flats was not unlike most others.
A young woman was shot dead in Mitchells Plain and six others were wounded including a 5-year-old girl said to have been shot in the eye.
The shooting allegedly occurred during a birthday party, and was executed in “drive-by shooting” style.
Shooting incidents are daily events on the Cape Flats.
Some of the more shocking recent incidents are:
- Three young men found shot to death on a field in Lotus River on 24 August;
- Three women executed in Khayelitsha on 27 September;
- An alleged gang leader from Hanover Park shot dead in Parow on 30 September;
- A four-year-old girl shot dead in Ottery, caught in the cross fire of a gang related shoot out, on 1 October;
- A man shot dead outside a Mosque in Wynberg on 8 October.
The seeds of gangsterism fertilised by apartheid social engineers continue to bear abundant poisonous fruit today.
Instead of fixing delapidated environments in which anti-social behaviour thrives, and instituting programmes to help young people navigate their daily lived experience, the State (at all levels) appears to have abandoned poorer communities in Cape Town to their fate.
The police activate their Anti-Gang Unit but, as has been the case for decades, the gangsters soon settle back into their usual routine, robbing, maiming, killing, and feeding drug and alcohol addictions.
Policing, on its own, will never succeed in loosening the grip gang-leaders have on communities.
While national government is in overall charge of police, the Western Cape has its own “Safety Plan” with a budget of R1.3 billion. It promises to halve the murder rate in the City’s crime hotspots. The City implements the plan, on behalf of the province.
R937 million has already been allocated to the City of Cape Town to implement the plan. But it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. The promised 3000 extra police officers in crime-ridden communities has been downscaled to 1000 Learner Law Enforcement Officers. These Learner Officers receive just six weeks of training before being placed in potentially life-threatening situations.
If we are going to address gangsterism and crime we cannot focus exclusively on policing. We must invest in changing the circumstances that give rise to crime and make it easy for gangsters to keep recruiting new youngsters to continue their trail of destruction.
An investment of R1.3 billion would go far if it were spent on upgrading the built environment in crime hotspots, installing and repairing public lighting, funding additional drug rehabilitation facilities, investing in training and skills development for young people, and providing community facilities and programmes.
The Province and the City are effectively ignoring their constitutional mandates to facilitate social and economic development.
It is a massive blot on the DA’s record that in the 15 years it has held the reins of the City life on the Cape Flats has become more dangerous, fragile and unbearable.
Regards
Brett Herron
GOOD: Secretary General
