Cape Town – Delft has an explosive cocktail of violence unique to the area: foreign gangs battling each other for territory; coloured gangs at war with each other; an "African grouping" focused on hijackings; and corrupt, underpaid officers at the local police station too scared to act on tip-offs out of fear for their own lives and that of their families.
Farieda Ryklief, secretary of the Delft Community Policing Forum (CPF), highlighted the complex dynamics in the area at the Crime Summit at the weekend. She emphasised that a successful strategy in Manenberg, for example, wouldn't necessarily have the same results elsewhere on the Cape Flats.
"They are not putting a lot of emphasis on Delft and we have had a lot of murders. I was telling them at the Crime Summit on Saturday that we have had 25 murders thus far this month," she told the Cape Times.
"The corruption is also very bad in Delft. We have the most diverse community this side and nobody is focusing on us, while our station commander is taking leave every time when things get bad in Delft.
When asked if the army – once it's deployed this week for three months after a red-tape delay – is going to help put a stop to the violent and deadly crime in Delft, Ryklief said: "Not really. I don't want to be negative but I don't think the army is equipped to deal with the community at large.
"The army is not trained to do police work. You can't have people who are not competent dealing with the diverse problems in Delft.
"In Manenberg, the army might work because it's just those gangsters and these gangsters, but here in Delft it's so diverse because we have the Somalians who are fighting amongst each other for territory and we have the Congolese who are fighting over drug territory. Then we also have the coloured gangs and an African grouping who are busy with the hijackings.
"We have random shootings. In many cases, the brother is a gangster and the siblings and the children or the mother are killed. It's a whole deurmekaar storie (big mess).
"But not everyone is a gangster in Delft. We have people living here. If they are going to look at every guy standing on the street and beat them up, then it's not going to work.
"That's the fear that a lot of people have: that our kids can't walk on the street after school and stuff because the army is going to think it's just gangsters."
The 10 precincts where the army is going to be deployed are Bishop Lavis, Mitchells Plain, Delft, Elsies River, Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Mfuleni, Philippi, Kraaifontein and Manenberg. Combined, these areas have contributed to 42% of attempted murders in the province.
Ryklief believes it's not prudent to "alert the gangsters by saying where the army is going to be deployed. The gangsters are going to go quiet when the army comes and when they leave, the gangsters will just get going again".
She acknowledged, however, that when the army was previously stationed in Manenberg, what made a major impact was that they worked closely with the Community Policing Forum and the neighbourhood watches, adding that "those are the people who can really identify the problem areas".
But therein lies the rub in Manenberg. "If they are going to work with the police, then I have a lot of concerns because I know who the corrupt ones are and if they are going to lead the army, then it's not going to be beneficial for us as a community," she said.
"You will be very surprised to know how many guns we found in our area that are police guns. And the reservists who recently found the guns said they were found at gangsters' houses.
"Yet those members are still in the police service and that's how bad the corruption is in Delft. We as the Community Policing Forum is even fighting to get recognition from the police station, but we are continuing to serve the community.
"We have had several consultations and dialogue with stakeholders to try to understand how we can deal with this. The only way we can deal with it is by having different staff at the police station who are not so familiar with the situation.
"Then the CPF and neighbourhood watches can work with the police and show them where the hideouts are and we can have a total clean-up.
"But with the current staff we can't do this because many of our members have been shot for identifying hot spots and where guns can be found. The perpetrators, the gangsters, end up knowing who gave the police the information and then their lives are at risk.
"We need police we can trust and work with, then we can really fight this and get our streets back. For now, with the corruption, there is no trust. We are fighting a losing battle, honestly.
''We spoke intensively with the national minister and we requested that we have a say who gets appointed to the police station, but it doesn't seem that they are taking note of it.
"One of our CPF members gave the police a tip-off this weekend. The police went there and, according to them, they did a thorough search but couldn't find any guns.
"Then we got the City's Law Enforcement and they went in there and got the guns. Now what does that tell you?
"The police are underpaid and 80% of the officers are living in Delft. So corruption is inevitable. They have to think of their families and their kids that are growing up.
"They are too afraid to arrest these gangsters because they don't know if they are going to target their families. It's not good at all having people who reside in the area working there.
"So many police officers who live in Delft have been shot already. Once you do your work, you become a threat and then they are definitely going to target you.
"It's the same people committing the murders. The police know their modus operandi but, for some reason, it doesn't seem they are able to trace these people and catch them…"