Western Cape MEC Dan Plato has once again called for the army to assist in gang infested communities in Cape Town.
|||Cape Town - A call for the army to be brought in to assist the police in stabilising and patrolling the areas worst affected by a spate of gang violence in Cape Town has been made once again, by Community Safety MEC Dan Plato.
There has been a series of gang-related murders on the Cape Flats, particularly in Manenberg, in recent weeks. In the past 24 hours, two more men have been killed in neighbourhoods known for gang shootings.
A 36-year-old man was shot and killed in Bunting Crescent, Robinvale, Atlantis on Monday afternoon. The unidentified suspects fled, and the motive for the attack was unknown, said police spokesman Andre Traut.
Atlantis ward councillor Barbara Rass feared that retaliatory shootings could plunge the neighbourhood into another cycle of violence. She said at least 23 people were shot and killed in shootings between late last year and May this year. She supported Plato in his call for military intervention.
Two hours after the Atlantis murder, another man, aged 21, was shot and killed in Beacon Valley, Mitchells Plain. A woman in her twenties, carrying a child in her arms, sustained a gunshot wound to her leg. Police have not yet identified any suspects.
Bystanders speculated that the shooting was in retaliation for a recent murder in the area.
Plato said his call for the army to intervene in the Cape Flats violence merely echoed a call he heard on a weekly basis when visiting affected communities.
“People stress that they cannot continue to live under these circumstances. They feel that the police resources are too stretched to contain and combat the violence effectively. I support their calls for the defence force to intervene,” said Plato.
“Police are so busy responding to new crime scenes and shootings to do proper, consistent investigative work. They don’t have the time to gather intelligence to build cases and to confiscate illegal guns.
“That is why many of the shooters continue unabated and get away scot-free,” he argued.
At a community meeting in Hanover Park last week, dozens of people fell to the ground when a nearby car backfired.
“Witnessing that made me realise that we cannot continue in this vain. People cannot be expected to raise children and live amid such fear and uncertainty,” said Plato.
Plato said it would be up to the police minister, Nathi Mthethwa, to petition President Jacob Zuma to authorise army intervention.
In a response to a query from the Cape Argus about police capability and other issues last week, the police said they had an “effective, efficient and intact” strategy in place to address “criminal gangs and their criminal networks”.
Code-named Operation Combat, the strategy had a “long-term focus”, was “multi-phased” and operated across a wide geographic area, said spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana. Kinana said intelligence operatives were deployed to affected areas and investigations were continuing and arrests had been made.
Cape Argus