Emotions run high at Westville crime indaba

Westville residents gather at Truro Hall last night to discuss the escalating crime situation in the area.Picture: Sibusiso Ndlovu

Westville residents gather at Truro Hall last night to discuss the escalating crime situation in the area.Picture: Sibusiso Ndlovu

Published Jan 24, 2017

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Durban – Tensions ran high at a public meeting in Westville on Monday night to address the recent surge in violent crime in the area, with community policing forum chairman Mike Myers saying that the current Westville SAPS management was not equipped to deal with the situation.

“Crime is out of control right now,” Myers said.

The current station commander at Westville police station was acting, Myers said, and there had not been a permanent station commander there for 21 months.

He said morale at the station was low, that there were pending internal grievances with the station management and that there were not enough resources.

“There also has been no crime threat lodged at a provincial level. If there had been, we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in,” Myers said.

Westville has been struck by a wave of violent attacks in recent month.

In September, 35-year-old Gary Mackay was killed trying to protect his wife and two young children during a home invasion.

Then in November, Paresh Bodalia, 46, was gunned down in front of his 6-year-old twins during an attempted hijacking at the front gate to his property.

Last Monday, a resident was shocked, burnt and beaten when a gang of house robbers – disguised as tilers – held him, and labourers who were working on his property at the time, hostage for two hours.

Last Tuesday, there were a reported five housebreakings and one hijacking in the area, with a member of the local neighbourhood watch narrowly escaping injury when he was shot at while approaching one of the crime scenes.

Then on Saturday morning, ADT response officer Themba Mqikwa was shot and killed while responding to an alarm that went off at a property in Matapan Drive.

Monday night’s meeting was attended by more than 600 residents.

Westville Central representative Anne Mahomed said the community was living in fear.

“We are prisoners in our own home,” she said.

She had been a victim of crime in recent weeks and she said she did not want her children to live the way they were.

“They sleep with cricket bats under their beds; we have a private guard in our premises,” she said.

The general attitude among members of the community on Monday night was that they wanted more police – from both Metro and SAPS – on the ground and they wanted them now.

Deputy mayor Fawzia Peer, who hosted the meeting, announced that she wanted to put together a “community group”.

But when members of the crowd asked what this community group would be expected to do, she did not provide details and the crowd became upset.

Peer also said she wanted to install more metro-monitored CCTV cameras in the suburb and install a satellite police station in the area.

It is understood there are already three metro-monitored CCTV cameras in Westville, but only two of them are working.

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The Mercury

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