After what they deem are failed interventions to curb crime in their community, the residents of Soshanguve and Jukulyn outside Pretoria on have expressed little hope that tough-talking police minister Bheki Cele could rescue them.
Cele visited the area on Tuesday after the fatal shooting of five-year-old Ditebogo Junior Phalane by hijackers outside his home in Soshanguve at the weekend.
The incident happened at the Block UU section — an area the community says was once quiet.
As TimesLIVE Premium took to the streets of Jukulyn, residents said they find themselves at the mercy of thugs who are sometimes known to them and the police.
I don't even think Bheki Cele will win this war if they don't come up with a new strategy.
— Charlotte Makhado
Charlotte Makhado, who has been a victim of the crime in Jukulyn, said she has lost hope in the police.
“We don't have hope any more, even though there are (police) who are trying to deal with the crime. They get killed. I don't think Bheki Cele will win this war if they don't come up with a new strategy,” she said.
Makhado said she was shot during a hijacking and the culprits have not been brought to book.
“I was hijacked. My son is still seeing a psychologist. He is traumatised. They took my money and did what they wanted with my accounts and took about R300,000 from my Absa account. The police did nothing. I just saw a message stating that the case has been closed. The detective never even asked me what happened or if I saw the suspect. Nothing. And if you go to the police to ask, the criminals will come after you.”
Makhado said life in Jukulyn is “not a life for anyone”.
“It's a prison. While criminals are sitting nicely in prison and they have everything, we don't have freedom because you cannot walk in the streets with your phone. They take it, and they even invade your home.
She said on May 29 she would be voting for the political party that is against crime.
“The political party that will not promise me, but will do that which was supposed to be done 30 years back. In the same way they deploy police to shoot people when they are protesting for service delivery, they don't do that when they deploy for crime.
“When we are protesting for service delivery, they send police to shoot us. They brutally kill us for asking for service delivery. When we fight we are shot, but criminals walk free. I think criminals have more rights than us. I disagree that we have rights as citizens of this country,” Makhado said.
Elizabeth Letsoalo, who started living in Jukulyn in 1992, said the area was once peaceful.
“We used to have stakeholders called CPF volunteering. Crime was not there. We now have crime hot spots. We know them. When you tell the police to patrol at the hot spots, they don't go there.
“We have guns in the community. You ask yourself how they enter the area. Jukulyn is beautiful, it was a peaceful area. Things went wrong since 2013, there is no order. If you go to the police station to report a crime they tell you to bring the suspect,” Letsoalo said.
Leti Skhosana complained that while crime previously happened only at night, now it happens during the day.
“Our police work with these criminal boys. How will the crime end when we are trusting them but they are the ones also delivering nyaope? They deliver cars that are hijacked and stolen stuff. They are the ones giving these boys guns to shoot us,” Skhosana said.
He believes a Gauteng crime prevention warden could make a difference.
“Elections are coming and we do not know how we are going to vote ... It's like Cele came to bribe us so that we can think that we have a lot of police,” Skhosana said, responding to the heavy police presence that was in the area during Cele's visit to the township.
“These police vans are not available when needed. At 6pm you can't send a child to the shop,” she said.
Another resident, Moses Rampyapedi, agreed that police were part of the problem.
“You can go to the police to open a case today and they will arrest the criminal, but tomorrow you will see him walking on the street... We think these criminals are connected to the police. That is why — if possible — they should change all police officers in the area and bring in other police from different areas,” he said.
Rampyapedi thinks soldiers should combat crime.
“During Covid-19 when they brought soldiers it was quiet. I think if they repeat and bring in soldiers to assist the police, the crime will end. Now when you send a child to the shop, you get scared that they might not come back because they shoot small children.
“There are a lot of drugs being sold. Police know that. Even if you go to Mabopane police station, they sell nyaope next to the police station. The crime statistics are very high, and we can't say it's foreigners because it's our children who live here.”
“As long as we still have the same police men and women, I don't believe things will change,” Rampyapedi said.
“Even during the day if you get stuck in your car and they see you, they will attack you. During the night is worse. If you come here at night you will hear many gunshots. There is no day that passes without hearing gunshots.”
Rampyapedi — a self-confessed ANC member — said “our ANC government is failing us.
“We must vote for the party that we have hope in. That our children are going to work and be protected and we are going to be safe,” he said.
Meanwhile, 65-year-old Desmond Kulubeyalishako said he wants to see changes after Cele's visit and interventions.
“What I have realised is that our officers are working as police because they don't have food and cannot find other jobs. It's not the work they have a passion for, that is why they work with criminals.”
Cele announced urgent policing interventions to combat the escalating violent crime. He has deployed a stabilisation team that includes officers from Crime Intelligence, the Flying Sqaud, the K9 unit, the Rapid Response teams and private security to strengthen policing in the area.
The team, supported by more than 60 vehicles, will be deployed for three months and Cele said its progress and effectiveness would be evaluated weekly.
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