Call to speed up gang cases
DA-led marchers in northern areas hand petitions to NPA, police, metro
... an arrest without a conviction recycles the same criminal back ...
THE National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has been urged to speed up court cases of gangsterism and violent crime in a petition that was handed over by the DA in Nelson Mandela Bay. Hundreds of DA supporters, members of religious groups and northern area communities marched from outside Cleary Park shopping centre to Bethelsdorp police station, calling for an end to violence against women and children.
Different petitions were handed over to representatives of the NPA, police and metro.
Presenting the petitions, DA councillor Tommy Faltain said: “We have noted cases where serious offences tend to drag on for years while the perpetrators are out on bail.”
He called for strict bail conditions for those implicated in cases of gangsterism and crimes against women and children.
Turning to the police, Faltain said the SAPS should be impartial when conducting their duties, they should intensify crime prevention in the northern areas and conduct more effective investigations for courts to deny suspects bail.
He called on the metro to ensure it created a safe city by installing better lighting in communities, creating amenities where children could play, broadening the scope of its metro police and growing its economy to create jobs.
Faltain said the city must establish a toll-free line where crime could be reported anonymously and conduct frequent raids in crime hotspots.
The march was addressed by DA MP Yusuf Cassim who took a swipe at the ANC-led government for allowing Mduduzi Manana to remain deputy higher education minister despite evidence of him assaulting women.
Manana is alleged to have assaulted two women at a Johannesburg night club last Sunday. He made a brief court appearance on Friday and was released on R5 000 bail.
“There is nothing honourable about that guy but until today the ANC has not taken any action against him,” Cassim said.
“The law must take its course but when there is evidence, what are you waiting for?”
Cassim said Manana did the same thing that was happening daily to women and children in many communities.
He called on communities to help the DA win the election in 2019 because the ANC government could no longer be trusted to protect women.
Metro DA councillor Rano Kayser said the party chose the northern areas because it had been identified nationally among areas with high levels of violence against women and children.
He called on law enforcement agencies to step up their efforts to ensure that every arrest ended with a conviction.
He said: “When you make an arrest it is not enough, because an arrest without conviction recycles the same criminal back into the community to carry on with what he’s been doing.”
Receiving the petition on behalf of the police, Bethelsdorp station commissioner Brigadier Zolani Xawuka said police would continue sharing their crime prevention strategies with the communities of the northern areas.
The NPA’s chief prosecutor in the Nelson Mandela Bay region, Clive Killian, urged the community to continue holding authorities to accountability but not to forget their personal accountability.
“For us to present a credible case before courts we need to have credible evidence and you have to give that credible evidence to the police so that they can present a very strong case in court.”
He said many community members experienced and witnessed crime but chose to remain on the sidelines instead of cooperating with law enforcement to obtain credible evidence.
Receiving the petition on behalf of mayor Athol Trollip, metro councillor Nqaba Bhanga said the DA had lived up to its promise of fighting crime after establishing the metro police precinct in the northern areas.