Cape Town - The Mfuleni Community Policing Forum (CPF) has attributed the sharp increase in violent crimes in the area to the soaring population which has made the area the murder capital of the country.
CPF chairperson Anthony Parish said that in the past two years there had been an increase in land invaders in the area which had resulted in 11 informal settlements.
Parish was responding to the provincial crime statistics on Tuesday, when Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen and provincial police commissioner Thembisile Patekile took stock of the recently released crime statistics.
The Mfuleni police station recorded 89 murders between the October and December 2022 reporting period. This was an increase of 32 cases from the October and December 2021 reporting period. The station was followed by Delft, Nyanga, Kraaifontein and Harare.
There was also an increase of 15.8% in all contact crimes in the province compared with the same reporting period in 2021. Murders increased by 13.4%, attempted murders by 15.8%, and assault grievous bodily harm by 13.7%.
Arguments/misunderstandings, road rage and provocations were flagged as the causative factors for the majority of the murder incidents, followed by gang shootings, punishment, vigilantism and robbery.
Parish said design factors in these informal settlements made it difficult to police.
“Most people come to this area as there are more open spaces to move in, and it happens daily. As expected, this has increased the ratio of people to one police officer. Driftsands is especially difficult to navigate. We have vehicles but the area has no street lights and proper roads, which makes it difficult for police, and even us, to reach every corner,” he said.
Parish also hinted at the strained relationship between the police and the residents.
“Unfortunately, when the police go out there they do not get support from the community. Currently, there is no trust between the police and the community, and we acknowledge that as community workers we need to establish this working relationship and strengthen it,” he said.
Patekile said the weapons of choice were firearms and knives. He said the police would focus on these in their preventive measures. Patekile also flagged liquor and drugs as triggers for the violent crimes which he said were generating gang violence, rapes and domestic violence cases.
Patekile said the partnership the police forged with the CPFs, neighbourhood watches, and private security companies supplementing the work of the police and law enforcement agencies was paying dividends.
Allen said the Mfuleni area had the second biggest deployment of Leap officers in the city. He said the province was deploying additional resources through the Leap programme in priority areas and that Mfuleni was one of such areas.