Cape Town - Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille expressed concern about the escalating gang violence in Manenberg.
De Lille said on Tuesday that the City of Cape Town had deployed the Stabilisation Unit, which was launched in Manenberg last year to fight crime in the area.
She said her concern was such that she called a meeting with Western Cape Police Commissioner Major General Jula to discuss the ongoing gang violence. “We are very concerned about the high level of violence threatening the lives of so many residents in the area. We wish to condemn this gang war as an act of terror against the community,” she said. “We cannot allow families to live as hostages in their own homes while innocent lives are being lost in the crossfire,” De Lille said.
De Lille said that the City of Cape Town would be aiding the South African Police Service's (SAPS) fight against gangsterism by “making all possible resources available in order to assist their operations in Manenberg”. “We will be coordinating our efforts,” De Lille said.
She said the city's policing efforts in the past year had seen gang murders drop by 19 percent from the previous year, and that the trend showed that gang-related murders were declining. “ “This means that while three years ago one-fifth of all murders in Cape Town were gang-related, that figure is now only 11 percent,” she said.
She said since the weekend, the City's Gang and Drug Task Team had been conducting raids and sting operations, and that they, together with the Stabilisation Unit, had confiscated three illegal firearms in Manenberg.
Five suspects were also arrested on possession of narcotics during the raids. “We cannot take over the job of the National Government and undertake the policing role they are supposed to provide through SAPS, but we commit to doing what we can to help,” she said.
African News Agency