Johannesburg – Drastic action is needed to fight crime and drugs and thus prevent xenophobic attacks, the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) said on Sunday.
Sanco called for an urgent review of the national crime prevention strategy (NCPS) to ensure that new priorities responded adequately to acts of criminality threatening the safety of communities.
This followed the outbreak of violence in Pretoria West during which two houses alleged to be drug dens were torched.
PICS: Protesters burn down houses
“[The] South African Police Service (SAPS) management needs to get to the bottom of allegations that law enforcement officers are either compromised by involvement in crime or turning a blind eye to criminal activities because they are receiving bribes from crime syndicates,” Sanco national spokesman Jabu Mahlangu said.
The breakdown in trust between police and communities had resulted in some communities, including Rosettenville in Johannesburg and Pretoria West, taking the law into their own hands, he said.
Last week, about 10 alleged drug dens and brothels in Rosettenville were set alight by angry community members. Two alleged drug dens in Pretoria West were set alight on Saturday.
“Drastic action and a proactive approach to fight crime and the scourge of drugs that are [ravaging] youth in our communities needs to be adopted to restore confidence in policing and clamp down on incidents of vigilantism as well as lawlessness that are on the rise,” Mahlangu said.
He urged communities to reclaim their neighbourhoods and streets from drug lords.
"Dysfunctional Community Policing Forums (CPFs) must be urgently dissolved and relaunched from street committees to establish crime prevention structures that will uproot criminality in a disciplined and organised manner.”
The fight against drugs had to be won from household to street level, schools, and every street corner in the neighbourhood.
“We must reclaim the space we had allowed criminals, including drug lords, to occupy in our communities and work tirelessly to expose their nefarious activities,” he said. Communities should also expose criminal elements that attacked businesses owned by foreign nationals whenever violence flared up.
“Xenophobic looters, like drug dealers, are a menace to society because their shameful actions undermine the successful social integration and peaceful co-existence of foreign nationals in many of our communities,” Mahlangu said.
African News Agency