Clever Cops
NINE months ago, Manenberg High was more like a battlefield than a school.
Attendance hovered at around 50% because of the constant threat of stray bullets from the gang war raging in the community, and pupils were continually advised about “safe” routes to school as the fighting moved from street to street.
Today, says principal Thurston Brown, a “sense of normality” has been restored. “Kids are playing in the streets again. Teachers can work again.”
The team behind the outbreak of peace in one of Cape Town’s most notorious and bloodsoaked suburbs is the “stabilisation unit” that was sent in in July last year when there were three shootings a day, on average, in Manenberg.
By November, the 90-member unit, working with the metro police and the South African Police Service, had reduced the number of shootings to one in four months, and now the lessons learnt are being applied in other areas ruled by ganglords and drug syndicates, including Mitchells Plain, Nyanga,
Many of our people are happy that they are catching these guys. Look at how I’m shaking, we’re scared
Ravensmead and Steenberg.
In Manenberg, the strategy was to saturate a problem area and keep officers posted outside every known drug dealer’s house, using city by-laws and information from residents to smother the flow of drugs, guns and money.
“We’ve got a targeted approach and an integrated approach where we latch on to different role-players,” said Charl Kitching, who heads the City of Cape Town’s drug and gang units, which work closely with the stabilisation team.
“We would focus on a specific drug dealer and ask where he is staying. Is it council rental stock? Is he operating contrary to the lease agreement? Does he have outstanding water or rates accounts? Has he built illegally onto his premises? Or if it’s a private dwelling, is it a problem building?”
JP Smith, the mayoral committee member for safety and security, said the stabilisation unit’s purpose was encapsulated in its name — “to stabilise areas or suburbs that experience a flare-up in gang violence or other public unrest through visible policing, stop-and-search operations and so forth”.
Stabilisation unit members were recruited from the South African National Defence Force, the police and other law enforcement agencies and underwent extensive situation and firearm training.
Smith said: “It also alleviates the pressure on the SAPS and other enforcement agencies who may not necessarily have the resources to maintain high visibility in an area for a prolonged period.”
Last week, the Sunday Times joined 35 members of the stabilisation, drug and gang units, which are jointly funded by the city and the Western Cape government, in an operation in Ocean View, another suburb ravaged by gang violence.
The operations happen daily and unit members are briefed on the location and details at the last minute to prevent tip-offs.
The day’s target was a cluster of shacks and government housing units identified by community members as drug houses.
One officer explained that the best intelligence came from peo- ple who lived near druglords and gangsters.
“The city council has an informers policy whereby the community can come forward and give us information and remain completely anonymous,” said Kitching. “If the information they supply to us leads to a positive arrest or even just to confiscation, there is a reward that the city will pay out.”
Informers are assured of anonymity because a code SMSed to the cellphone used to provide the information can be used at an ATM to withdraw a reward of up to R1 000.
Last week’s operation saw team members leaping from moving vehicles to apprehend people buying and selling drugs. One suspect covered in tattoos linking him to the 26s prison gang was still high and extremely edgy, reporting his age as 18 though he was clearly much older.
An elderly resident said she was happy that the units were starting to operate in Ocean View. “I can’t sleep with these things happening next to me, these guys who are selling the drugs,” she said. “Many of our people are happy that they are catching these guys. Look at how I’m shaking, we’re scared of these [drug dealers].”
Two suspects ran from their houses as unit members started raiding a cluster of shacks.
A man in possession of “buttons”, or mandrax, was arrested. Another hid in surrounding fynbos, but he was apprehended a few minutes later carrying a paint bucket half-filled with fistsized dagga parcels.
The catch for the day was nine arrests, more than R10 000 in cash, and large quantities of tik, mandrax and dagga.
After operations the units disperse as quickly as they arrive because there is a deep hostility towards the police in some areas. “There is a breakdown of trust between the police and the community and some of it is historical. The way police handled things pre-1994 . . . some of that is still ingrained in the community,” said Manenberg community police forum chairman Kader Jacobs.
Manenberg police station commander Colonel Sandile Eugene Zama said having the stabilisation unit with them as a “force multiplier” had improved the police’s reputation. “The people are feeling very safe. We are getting more trust in the community than in the past,” he said.
Last month, President Jacob Zuma announced the reintroduction of specialised police units to combat drugs and illegal firearms, a move widely welcomed by opposition parties. The Western Cape government announced this week that it was pumping R10.4-million into stabilisation units.
The City of Cape Town is recruiting new members for the units.