Fed up with criminals and fear, Ilitha women take to the streets

CLAD in black, the women of Ilitha walked side-by-side in solidarity in a common desire to free their community of crime and fear.

Yesterday, as Women’s Month draws to a close, 20 women from the township near Berlin marched to the Ndevana Police Station to demand police do something to stop murder and robbery in their neighbourhood.

They called on the police to step up the battle against societal ills, top of the list being drug and alcohol abuse.

They sang church hymns and held placards calling for hasher sentences for murderers, and for unruly, noncompliant shebeens which stayed open to the early hours to be closed forever.

The women, young and old, said they were tired of just sitting back and watching their children either getting killed, or falling into drug addiction and drug peddling and ending up in jail.

Welekazi Bhangushe said since the start of this year six young people had been murdered – most the result of drug- or alcohol-fuelled petty arguments.

Most of the bodies were found near taverns.

“It is killing us as parents to watch how our children are getting killed. We blame it on substance abuse and these tavern owners who do not comply with closing times,” said Bhangushe.

Glory Williams said her two nephews were stabbed to death near a tavern last year. “I know the pain of losing loved ones to senseless killings that could have been prevented if those involved were not under the influence.

“We need immediate intervention from the police to fight this scourge,” said Williams.

In their memorandum handed to the police, the women demanded:

● The closure of a specific tavern which they claimed was the root of most serious crimes in the community;

● Police must hunt down and bust drug dealers; ● More police patrols; ● The return of the death penalty;

● The re-establishment of the Community Policing Forum (CPF); and

● Police officials must stop ratting out informants to drug dealers.

“Being a police informer is very risky and might get you killed because of the few rotten officials that will go and tell the perpetrators,” said Williams.

On accepting the memorandum, the station commander Captain Namtushe Skade offered to take two of the women to the Eastern Cape Liquor Board to escalate their concerns over non-complying taverns.

“We do not have the power to close down a shebeen. The power lies with the community,” said Skade —