When police minister Bheki Cele visited Diepsloot in April last year, he was clear that one of the markers of the success of his interventions in fighting crime would be a reduction in murders in the township.
At the time, police statistics for the first three months of that year recorded 19 murders.
In fact Cele’s visit that week was a response to a protest sparked by the killing of a foreign national who was stoned to death by a vigilante group claiming to be fighting crime.
Fast forward to this week, yet again the community is up in arms, shutting highways and demanding more sustainable intervention in the spiralling crime situation.
Police statistics show that in the first three months of this year, 20 people were murdered. This month alone at least six people have been killed.
The latest is a community leader who was shot dead while responding to a call to help a shopkeeper who was under attack.
Residents say the community is firmly in the clutches of thugs, primarily because police are nowhere to be seen.
Police on the other hand say the densely populated area is a challenging one to command because the lay of the land makes it extraordinarily difficult to move around efficiently.
This, they rightfully say, is not a policing problem. It is a human settlement problem.
Indeed questions must be asked about what sustainable interventions ought to be made to capacitate police to become more proactive and responsive to crime.
There is no question that police resources deployed in the area periodically are not nearly sufficient to change the situation.
This is a problem across the country, which demands far more investment in our policing strategy than we have.
However, it would be disingenuous to suggest that the prospects of better policing in Diepsloot are not intrinsically linked to the need for proper spatial development.
Equally to that of the police, the responsibility to make meaningful interventions must also be shouldered by the local and provincial governments.
They have a duty to deal with the human settlement and spatial planning problems that inhibit even the most basic functions of fighting crime.
SOWETAN | Diepsloot more than a policing issue
Image: Thulani Mbele
When police minister Bheki Cele visited Diepsloot in April last year, he was clear that one of the markers of the success of his interventions in fighting crime would be a reduction in murders in the township.
At the time, police statistics for the first three months of that year recorded 19 murders.
In fact Cele’s visit that week was a response to a protest sparked by the killing of a foreign national who was stoned to death by a vigilante group claiming to be fighting crime.
Fast forward to this week, yet again the community is up in arms, shutting highways and demanding more sustainable intervention in the spiralling crime situation.
Police statistics show that in the first three months of this year, 20 people were murdered. This month alone at least six people have been killed.
The latest is a community leader who was shot dead while responding to a call to help a shopkeeper who was under attack.
Residents say the community is firmly in the clutches of thugs, primarily because police are nowhere to be seen.
Police on the other hand say the densely populated area is a challenging one to command because the lay of the land makes it extraordinarily difficult to move around efficiently.
This, they rightfully say, is not a policing problem. It is a human settlement problem.
Indeed questions must be asked about what sustainable interventions ought to be made to capacitate police to become more proactive and responsive to crime.
There is no question that police resources deployed in the area periodically are not nearly sufficient to change the situation.
This is a problem across the country, which demands far more investment in our policing strategy than we have.
However, it would be disingenuous to suggest that the prospects of better policing in Diepsloot are not intrinsically linked to the need for proper spatial development.
Equally to that of the police, the responsibility to make meaningful interventions must also be shouldered by the local and provincial governments.
They have a duty to deal with the human settlement and spatial planning problems that inhibit even the most basic functions of fighting crime.
Residents want Ramaphosa in Diepsloot to fix it once and for all
Killed Diepsloot local leader fought crime at the forefront
Crime hotspot Diepsloot flares up yet again
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