LONG, COLD WALK Police’s antigang unit in spotlight
REPORT: MINISTER, TOP COPS BRIEF PARLIAMENTARIANS
20 gangs identified in the Western Cape and 10 in the Eastern Cape – major-general.
Police Minister Bheki Cele, national commissioner General Khehla Sitole and Major-General Leon Rabie yesterday reported to parliament’s portfolio committee on police on progress made by the police’s antigang unit since its formation in November.
Rabie said the unit was a national approach to curb gangsterism across the country, with a special focus on the Western Cape, Gauteng and Eastern Cape.
He added that the SA Police Service would create antigang units in all the nine provinces by 2021. Currently, Western Cape is the only province with a fully fledged unit. Other provinces still operate with task teams.
Rabie said they had identified 20 gangs in the Western Cape and 10 in the Eastern Cape. He said R20 million had been assigned to both the gang unit and Operation Thunder, formed in May 2018.
A month after the antigang unit was formed, Cele declared it a success, saying it had made a total of 119 arrests, with 110 of them gang-related, including nine arrests for murder and six for attempted murder.
Rabie said five hitmen had been arrested linked to cases under investigation. He said the number of murders in the Western Cape was declining, with December an exception.
“We are also looking into the matter of witness protection,” he said. “We’re also implementing a school safety strategy to create a safe environment for children.”
Various nongovernmental organisations, community policing forums and unions were given a chance to weigh in on how the unit could improve.
“There are growing levels of criminality and killings across our nation,” said Cosatu’s Tony Ehrenreich. “Working-class communities’ experience of gangs is really the shootings taking place and the drugs that are tearing apart our communities …”
Nkosinathi Theledi, general secretary of Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union, said they were worried about “serious mistrust” between communities and particular police officers and the collapse in relations due to dysfunctional community policing forums. Some police officers were even perceived as enemies. – Republished from Groundup.org.za