Cape Town - The growing trend of trend of certain groups of community members interfering with law-enforcement agency officers while they are executing their duties is seen as a sign of frustration by the crime-ridden communities.
But some don’t agree and blame it on criminals.
On Tuesday, the City’s metro police officers responding to gunfire in Hanover Park, came under fire from certain community members.
According to safety and security Mayco member JP Smith, the officers were arresting a suspect in Hanover Park for dealing in drugs when, after a while, they responded to a repeated gunfire incident around Algoa Court where a group of community members attempted to free the suspect while another tried to fetch the firearm he had thrown on top of the roof.
On Sunday the police also came under attack by community members at the same location.
A criminal is on the loose after residents from the T Block Section in Bonteheuwel thwarted an arrest and attacked law-enforcement, making a way for the man to escape.
On February 26 a police officer was left with head injuries and a vehicle was damaged after being stoned while attending a scene in Manenberg.
Hanover Park anti-crime activist Mansoer Arendse said while he did not condone the stone-throwing incident that occurred on Sunday, he understood the residents’ frustrations.
Arendse said the community believed that the Philippi police officers that were responding to incidents in the area were supplying guns and ammunition to gangsters.
“The people were actually stoning police, but because metro police were side-by-side with them, they got stoned too. People were talking about how corrupt the Hanover Park police are. No gangster or drug merchant that I know of makes guns and ammunition in their houses,” he said.
Manenberg anti-crime activist Roegshanda Pascoe said this was the unfortunate reality in communities where community members were divided into factions supporting various gangsters.
She said these supporters were used to create chaos when the gangsters were threatened or arrested.
“It’s one thing to blame the community, but we must also see things from their side and the frustrations that have been building for over a decade. It’s so complex that you can’t just bash the community for attacking the officers because these law-enforcement agencies do not give a decent service to the people of Cape Town, but are running up and down like headless chickens without a plan,” she said.