Violent criminals continue to torment Lusikisiki residents

Protesters call for specialised units to be deployed to the area but police say it is already receiving priority attention

While Mthatha is officially the murder and rape capital of the Eastern Cape, residents of Lusikisiki — at one time considered the country’s rape capital — say the incidence of rape and murder in the area is still worryingly high.

They now want provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-general Nomthetheleli Mene to send specialised police units to Lusikisiki to tackle criminals head on.

On March 19, residents joined a march against crime to the Lusikisiki police station to hand over a petition to the police’s district commissioner, Major-general Phumzile Cetyana, demanding the deployment of more personnel to the area.

Organised by the SA Communist Party in the OR Tambo district, the march followed a brutal attack on a 12-year-old girl who was stabbed 12 times by an intruder who allegedly also raped her 88-year-old grandmother.

The incident reportedly took place at Sirhanyeni village in the Zalu Heights area in Port St Johns, near Lusikisiki.

Speaking to the Dispatch, Lusikisiki Gender-based Violence and Femicide Combating Team chair Khwalo Matandabuzo said a disabled teenage boy had allegedly been raped in Sirhanyeni earlier this year.

Weeks later, the victim’s mother was also allegedly raped.

“Crime is very high in our area. We have too many taverns and shebeens here.

“Drugs are a big problem,” Matandabuzo said. “In Lusikisiki, we have more registered alcohol-selling businesses than churches and I have not even started counting illegal taverns and shebeens.

“Some do not even close until morning. Statistics say crime has gone down, but it is still high.”

In a video posted on social media and seen by the Dispatch, the young stabbing victim, whose face is not shown, recounted how she was asleep with her grandmother when she woke up in the arms of a man who had broken into their home. The attacker had stabbed her grandmother near her neck.

He then took the girl to a donga near her home where he allegedly instructed her to open her legs. He allegedly stabbed her repeatedly when she refused.

The girl suffered stab wounds to her back, arms and near her chest.

She said the attacker also tried to suffocate her by pressing her head down into mud while stabbing her in the back.

Despite bleeding profusely, she managed to escape and ran past her own home and into the homestead of one of her relatives and was later taken to hospital.

A relative at the homestead said that the girl, who had recovered from her injuries, was later moved to another school because some of her fellow pupils had made fun of her.

An elderly relative described Sirhanyeni as a den of criminals and rapists.

“It is no longer nice to stay in this village. We are at the mercy of criminals. We just don’t feel safe any more,” she said.

The woman blamed a new type of cannabis, apparently cultivated in some homesteads in the village, as one of the contributing factors to the high crime rate in Sirhanyeni.

Meanwhile, in the petition handed over to Cetyana during last month’s anti-crime march, residents demanded that police conduct regular search-and-seizure operations in Lusikisiki, including at schools.

Apart from murders and rape, Lusikisiki was also experiencing high levels of car hijackings, acts of extortion and armed robberies, according to the petition.

“We demand that SAPS must expedite the turnaround time for the release of results from the laboratories for court proceedings during rape cases.

“We demand the establishment of a police task team that must be deployed to avert more bloodshed, loss of lives in the ongoing taxi violence and to avert the acts of criminality of protection fees that are demanded from local business entities,” the petition said.

The protesters also demanded that regular search operations be conducted to affirm the legality of business entities in the town and apprehend those who flouted the law.

Eastern Cape provincial spokesperson Warrant Officer Majola Nkohli said Lusikisiki was one of the 30 policing areas that was receiving priority attention from the government.

This included the upgrading of the Lusikisiki police station to a brigadier-level station followed by the appointment of an experienced station commander.

He said the station had also been beefed up with more personnel and resources, including eight vehicles, to increase visibility.

“Currently there is a national and provincial deployment of members from visible policing who are operating in the OR Tambo district.

“In the last three months, a total of 23 suspects were nabbed for possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition in Lusikisiki, and among those was an elderly man,” Nkohli said.

“There is progress and improvement of service delivery in Lusikisiki ever since the interventions and deployment of foot soldiers.”