Cape Town - The Langa Community Policing Forum has warned residents to be on the lookout for an alleged “syndicate” terrorising residents.
There have been widespread complaints of robberies since October.
The perpetrators are said to use different vehicles when targeting young girls and adults and robbing them at gunpoint.
The Langa Safety Patrol recently reported that it was receiving reports on an almost hourly basis about the robberies.
Numerous residents had also come forward on the Concerned Residents of Langa Facebook page detailing how these incidents occurred.
The recent incident reported by the group occurred at the corner of Bhunga Avenue where a young girl was robbed at gunpoint on Saturday.
Other incidents detailed by the residents which occurred in the past two weeks include the robbery and alleged attempted kidnap in Rubusana Avenue by foreign nationals and another young girl who was shot in the leg while on her way from the shop and was also robbed of her iPhone by perpetrators believed to be foreign nationals.
Langa South African National Civic Organisation chairperson Zanele Mbizela said this called for residents to organise themselves at the street level through street committees.
“These incidents occur at a street level where it is expected that street committees are active. As seen from the numerous posts, these incidents are occurring constantly with no plan of action in sight.
“People seemingly do not understand the importance of serving in their street committees. No one can come and commit a crime in your street knowing that there is an active street committee that would stand up against this,” she said.
Langa CPF chairperson Alfred Magwaca said the CPF was aware of the reports, however, no official complaints were received as he said victims tended to not report this and would rather seek assistance on social media.
“For this to be looked at and be investigated thoroughly those that find themselves victims of this syndicate need to open cases with the police where data will be collected. This will then enable us to raise an alarm for all crime-fighting organisations to be on the lookout.
“While we understand that people are not reporting such cases based on the history of the police we want to assure them that things have changed. For them to prove that they need to report so that as the CPF we can ensure that these cases get the priority they deserve,” he said.
Magwaca said reporting these incidents would also ensure that there were more resources and police deployed in certain areas of the community.