‘Not enough being done to curb crime in Khayelitsha’

THE 369 murders recorded by Statistics South Africa in Khayelitshain the last year were not enough to invoke a tougher stance against crime in the area, the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) said.

The SJC, which had been at the forefront of trying to secure better policing resources for the three police stations in the sprawling township, said even the R14million Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, which had been set up by Premier Helen Zille in 2014, had done little to help.

Former commission co-chairman Vusi Pikoli, who had since been appointed provincial police ombudsman, yesterday visited the township as part of the SJC’s “Policing the Police” initiative which seeks to better equip community members about their rights when dealing with police officers.

Pikoli insisted the commission had not been a failure.

“The question of crime fighting requires 100 percent commitment from all roleplayers involved,” Pikoli said.

“From the police, government departments, from the community, NGO’s and so on. So we need to forge these partnerships. We can’t just talk and nothing is achieved because the people will continue to suffer.”

According to the 2015/16 statistics, 369 people had been killed inKhayelitsha, which included the Harare and Lingelethu West townships.

Nyanga recorded 279 murders, Delft 143 and Camps Bay one during the same period.

The SJC’s Chumani Sali said they were “back to square one”.

“After the commission, the provincial police department deployed a team of detectives to deal with the backlog of dockets. But they soon finished and left. So it was a once-off thing.”

Another “once-off”, Sali said, was the recommendation which looked at laboratory services, which include fast-tracking blood samples from crime scenes. “There was progress made, but that was also a once-off. Backlogs are back,” he said.

Sali continued: “A comparison was made (at the commission) between Khayelitsha, Delft and white affluent communities. For example, if you compare the Camps Bay police station and the Harare police station in Khayelitsha, in terms of police per population ratio you would find there’s one police officer for 1 043 people in Harare while in Camps Bay there’s one police official for every 115 residents.”

Pikoli said: “What we do know is that there are still many problems of crime in Khayelitsha. That’s a fact.”

The SJC, with Equal Education and the Nyanga policing forum, are expected to take on the police in the Western Cape High Court next year in a last-ditch effort for better policing resources in poorer neighbourhoods.