Cape Town – Fed-up residents picketed outside the Bishop Lavis police station yesterday following the killing of two young children and a family man in two separate drive-by shootings in Valhalla Park and Bonteheuwel on Christmas Eve.
Seven other residents were injured in the attacks.
In the Valhalla Park incident, a six-year-old girl and four-year-old boy were killed and five others injured.
Following Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) police operations, three suspects were arrested, and 12 have been taken in for questioning.
The Bonteheuwel incident, which residents say took place mere minutes after the Valhalla Park shooting, left a family man dead and two people injured.
Nadia Mayman De Gras from the Bonteheuwel Joint Peace Forum said the community had reached their wits’ end.
“We are heartbroken, sad, frustrated and very despondent. We’ve been very active in the last couple of months with community-building and social events, all in an effort to stop the scourge of gangsterism,” she said.
The group of concerned residents handed a memorandum to Nyanga cluster commander Major=General Sizakhele Dyantyi.
Their demands included appeals for the permanent deployment of the Tactical Response Team to the Bishop Lavis precinct; the reallocation of police personnel away from the suburbs to be deployed to hotspots; that Bonteheuwel get its own police station; the immediate eviction of gang leaders and druglords; and the immediate arrest of all gang members as per the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
They also asked for a integrated community safety plan monitored by communities and a mass public works programme at a living wage.
“Since our last protest we have seen a huge improvement from police. They are trying, there is more police visibility, they are doing random stop and searches, their response time has improved, but somehow this is not enough,” Mayman De Gras said.
Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said: “The SAPS has taken note of a picket outside the Bishop Lavis SAPS.
“We recognise the right of citizens to express their views. We would at the same time reiterate the police’s commitment to ensuring safety in all communities.
“It is on this basis that the AGU, with detectives, ventured out in an intelligence-driven operation last night and effected arrests.”
Operations ran through the night in an effort to catch the perpetrators, she added.
“In the early hours of yesterday morning, the members descended on an informal settlement in Athlone where they arrested a 23-year-old suspect and seized several items, including medical supplies, R29000 in cash, cellphones and a gas welder with regulators. Six other suspects are currently being questioned by police.
“While busy with the search, information led the team to two more suspects wanted for a murder and an attempted murder case that occurred in Bishop Lavis in October. The suspects, in their 20s, were subsequently arrested,” Potelwa said.
“In the last leg of the operation, AGU members drove to nearby Kreefgat in Bonteheuwel where they arrested two other suspects, both aged 27, for the shooting incident where two children were killed on December 24 in Bishop Lavis. They also took in six others for questioning.”
Community Safety MEC Alan Winde commended the police for swiftly arresting five suspects following various fatal shooting incidents over the last few days in Bishop Lavis, Mitchells Plain and Kensington.
He said: “All the detectives, the AGU and officers that assisted with the investigation, which led to these arrests, must be congratulated. I would like to extend my sincere condolences to the families who lost their loved ones in these cowardly attacks.”
Residents were urged to report illegal firearms to 0783309333.
The suspects are set to appear in the Bishop Lavis Magistrate’s Court on Monday.