'Army must fight gangs'
Image by: ESA ALEXANDER
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has yesterday called on the South African National Defence Force to intervene in the recent spate of gang "wars" raging in the province.
This follows another shooting at a funeral over the weekend, in which four men masquerading as mourners shot and wounded two people.
Four women, who fled the scene in a separate car to the attackers, were arrested with two unlicensed firearms in their vehicle.
Zille said yesterday that drug-related gangs were now "beyond the capacity of the South African Police Service to control" and that the army had to be called in for support.
"[The police] need the support of the [army] to restore order," she said.
But she said any army intervention should only be temporary.
"Although we correctly describe the retributive violence between gangs as 'warfare', we are not in a civil war. This means that the role of the army is merely to create the space for the police to do their jobs effectively."
However, Zweli Mnisi, Police Ministry spokesman, said no decision had been made regarding the involvement of the army.
"In the Western Cape, we have one of the most experienced provincial police commissioners in Lieutenant-General [Arno] Lamoer and as police leadership, we remain confident that, together with his team, [Lamoer is] more than capable of tackling crime within the province."
Western Cape police spokesman Warrant Officer November Filander said it was still unknown if the recent shooting - at the funeral of known gang member Peter Meyer in Ottery on the Cape Flats - was gang-related.
The men fled in a taxi but the women were arrested shortly afterwards when they, too, sped away from the cemetery in a black Mercedes-Benz.
Filander said police were not able to stop the taxi but when they stopped the car they found four women and two firearms inside.
The serial number on one of the guns had been filed off and the other one had been reported stolen in nearby Grassy Park.
The women were expected to appear in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court today. The condition of the wounded - a 65-year-old woman from Mowbray and a 21-year-old man from Kraaifontein - was not immediately known.
Zille said more than 130 gangs with a collective membership of approximately 100000 existed in the poorest communities of the Western Cape.
She added that tik has intensified the extent of gangsterism in the province.
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If you have an opinion you would like to share on this article, please send us an e-mail to the Times LIVE iLIVE team. In the mean time, click here to view the Times LIVE iLIVE section.RSA.MommaCyndi
Posted 314 days agoAFRICAis60%MUSLIM
This is one avenue that was supposed to be exhausted years ago. The last resort is to assign a Specialised Gangs Unit, which will come highly recommended in gang-crime-ridden areas. The police have so much to do, the army should consider this request by the premier.
Romy
RSA.MommaCyndi
Putting all the blame on bad parenting is not fair. Unless you have knowledge of these areas, it is very hard to understand the pressures these kids are under. There is no police service. These kids either become a member of one of these gangs or they are at the mercy of all of them - at least in a gang there is some form of protection. Kids from good families sometimes get out as they have the support but even they struggle to get free once they are in the grip of these gangs.
It is also difficult for good parents as this is the 'norm' outside. It is difficult enough to keep a teenage kid on the straight and narrow without living in an area where human life is worthless and what people want, they just take - be that cars, sex or someone's tekkies.
Romy
RSA.MommaCyndi
A year ago, a good friend of my daughter's was shot, in broad daylight, in his driveway for daring to ask a bunch of youngsters if they could move their car so he could get his car out. That is the level this has got to. A few houses down, an old lady was shot for asking them to turn down their sound system as she had just got her baby grandson to sleep. The cops still haven't arrested them.
mzansi-wanda
Posted 314 days agoWhenever I LovetheTruth laments how the coloured community have been let down in the Western Cape he is berated as being "emotional" "angry" and so forth.
I am from Gauteng and I always feel unwelcomed in Cape Town. More so in affluent suburbs. This approach by the Western Cape government doesn't suprise me at all.
That said, I will support an army intervention in Hillbrow, Berea and Yeoville to rid these once beautiful places of crime and drugs. I don't know whether I am being paranoid but I feel as if these places are a ticking time bomb waiting ti explode in our economic hub.
RSA.MommaCyndi
The poor coloured community is always left with the smelly end of the stick. First they were not white enough and now they are not black enough. Even here in Pretoria, they are treated like poor relations who are not worthy of bothering about. It breaks my heart.
Romy
Romy
ILoveTheTruth
"Whenever I LovetheTruth laments how the coloured community have been let down in the Western Cape he is berated as being "emotional" "angry" and so forth. "
Now we know, that I'm not emotional and angry, but only speaking the truth, as my handle suggests. I am aware that people normally attacks your sanity or person if they want to deflect the truth. Thanks for understanding.
@Momma, I can guarantee you that I am not one of those people. There is a "trust" problem in the WC, and this is something I experience daily, especially on the roads. People have lost respect and tolerance for one another. They do not realise that their ill-deeds give the region a bad name and them an early ulcer.
@Romy,
"The S A Police Service is not under the control of the WC Government."
What is the use of a WC government then if they cannot fight the scourge of crime effectively? I believe the problem sits with both the DA and ANC regarding this matter. Blaming it on each other is not going to solve the issue at hand. The DA being the WC government of the day, must then come up with a solution. This is what makes real leadership, finding solutions, not blaming.
Romy
This is an issue I care deeply about because I have lost two members of my extended family through drug-related deaths (suicide and overdose) and I detest drug dealers with a passion. I agree that this is a problem that needs to be tackled by both the DA and the ANC working together. However, the DA can only act within the confines of the law and the Constitution, and I believe that they are doing the best they can considering that the Constitution empowers them to do very little when it comes to policing and nothing at all when it comes to the Defence Force, the prosecution services and the rest of the criminal justice system. An integrated approach is definitely needed, but that is difficult when the National Minister of Police seeks to prevent and impede every crime fighting initiative proposed by the WC Government, who are working together with Neighbourhood Watches, Community Police Forums, NGOs, as well as members of the communities who are activists. Patricia De Lille has started her anti-drug awareness campaign targeting the youth. The WC Government has also opened their 'Mass Opportunity and Development Centres' which operate at various schools in poor communities after school hours and are designed to keep children off the streets, out of the hands of drug dealers, and engaged in productive activities before their parents return home from work. That is only a couple of examples of what they are doing, but they need the support of an effective criminal justice system.
Stirrer
Posted 314 days agoNo doubt the ANC will strongly oppose this logical intervention proposal - not because it is bad, but because it is proposed by the DA!
muk1
Posted 314 days agoRomy
ILoveTheTruth
Yes, gangs are a social issue, but we all know who the engineers were and still are to this day.
Yesterday, I watched a video of David Icke(youtube). Did you know that 80% of the wealth and power of this country still belongs to the same handful of people, as pre-1994? Makes you think doesn't it?
Sta_Brown
Posted 314 days agoI wonder if this killing was in the ANC dominated province what would media and blogers would have said about the ANC and the Government.
muk1
ILoveTheTruth
UDFSupporter
Posted 314 days agoRomy
ILoveTheTruth
Posted 314 days agoYesterday I browsed an article in a newspaper about a (white)youngster in his 20's that overdosed on heroine. His friends said that they normally buy drugs in Voortrekker Road from Nigerians, Somalians, Moroccans, etc.
Three-fold point here. First point is that drugs is a multi-racial problem in the WC, so all communities must step forward to solve this.
Second point, pre-1994 the WC had problems with drugs, but it was nowhere as bad as today. The problem is directly related to the influx of foreigners to our shores. Everywhere you look these people have setup shops in poor communities. They treat the people "poorly", as I have seen with my own eyes, and act as if they have more rights than the people of Cape Town. I also believe that they use these shops as fronts for their drug trade. So, if Helen Zille really wants to help the communities of Cape Town, start here. If you don't believe me, ask the people, as it is common knowledge who the major suppliers of drugs in these communities are.
Third point, I am not sure that our "leaders" are serious about eradicating the drug scourge. As with poor education, poor services in general, this problem works in their favour, as it keeps them in control. Every week you read about police confiscating drugs and arresting some "small fish". etc. Does that ever solve the problem? No! Where are the "big fish" then? I am sure that most of us know where they are hiding. They are hiding in plain sight! They are the "friends" of highly placed officials in this country and the world.
These people prey on fear and as long as the people live in fear, they will win. We have to start speaking up and forcing the truth out of government. We have given them too much power already, that it has become a dictatorship.
Remember, so-called freedom is not really freedom, but only a way of giving the illusion of freedom, so that people do not fight back.
As for the army, I have said it before, the outside enemy is an illusion(made up), the real enemy is within(the people), and sending in the army on the people, proofs this on a daily basis, as can be seen worldwide. We are mere pawns in the game of the Aristocrats(previously Babylonians) to control the world. I'll say it again, we have to take back the power from them and give it back to the ordinary person, as we are the majority.