Delft residents are reclaiming their community by naming and shaming drug dealers and marking their houses with an X.
|||Cape Town - Delft residents are reclaiming their community by naming and shaming suspected drug dealers and marking their houses with an X.
Reginald Maart, chairman of the Delft Community Police Forum, said residents were taking back what belongs to them.
“There is only one way to heal the community and that is by mass participation,” Maart said. “The influence of gangsters and drug lords is killing our community.”
Maart said they wanted to show drug lords that the community had had enough.
“We still want to break down those houses,” he said.
On Thursday, police, neighbourhood watch, community police forum members and residents walked to several reputed drug houses and marked their walls with an X.
Police also focused on “Casablanca”, a well-known alleged drug outlet, where several search and seizure operations took place.
David Tysen, a resident whose house was marked, said it was unfair because his family “never sold any drugs”.
His sister broke down in tears as police sprayed a red X on the front of their home.
“We don’t sell drugs here. No one hides anything either,” Tysen said. “Now police have come here and they don’t even have warrants or anything.”
Alinah Claasen, a mother of three, said her children could not walk to school without getting robbed.
“Our children can’t walk anywhere, because it’s so unsafe,” Claasen said.
“Two weeks ago, someone was shot dead at one of the drug houses. There are so many problems in the area. It is extremely dangerous to live here. We are too afraid to walk in the streets.”
Another resident, who asked not to be named, said she was happy that police were marking drug houses.
“I had a problem with my daughter, who was addicted to tik,” she said. “She stopped smoking it two years ago, though.”
The woman added that residents didn’t feel safe walking around and chose to stay indoors.
natasha.bezuidenhout@inl.co.za
Cape Argus