Cape Town – Police are still searching for four suspects behind the robbery of 11 US tourists at gunpoint in Khayelitsha two weeks ago.
Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) chairperson Ndithini Tyhido said the incident highlighted the need for CCTV cameras in Khayelitsha, especially in Site C.
The tourists and a 26-year-old local tour guide had been visiting a
gardening project at a school in Site C on January 10 when five armed men allegedly stormed on to the premises, wearing reflector jackets.
They ordered the group into a
vehicle and robbed them of their
cameras, cellphones and wallets.
Two days later, local detectives arrested one of the suspects and two others were questioned.
Police Noloyiso Rwexana said only one suspect appeared in court yesterday and was charged with robbery.
“The accused is due to appear again in court on February 20,” she said.
Tyhido said the CCTV cameras could help both fight and deter crime.
“The KDF’s primary objective is to make Khayelitsha safe, and to work with all other stakeholders, including but not limited to the City of Cape Town.
"We have been encouraged by the City’s keenness in the implementation of the Uyabonwa CCTV
cameras project, a first of its kind in a
township,” said Tyhido.
In an effort to fight crime in Khayelitsha, the KDF last year unveiled a community roll-out surveillance camera project which would in future see the area equipped with more than 40 cameras trained on crime hot spots.
The City’s executive director for safety and security, Richard Bosman said there were currently three operational CCTV cameras in the Site C area.
A researcher at the Social Justice Coalition, Dalli Weyers, said three cameras for the whole of Site C was “wholly inadequate and reveals an
irrational distribution of safety resources in Cape Town”.
In 2014, the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry found the number of cameras in Khayelitsha to be inadequate.
“In recommendation 18, the commission called on the City to increase the number of CCTV cameras in Khayelitsha. Since then, the number of cameras serving Khayelitsha has increased from 16 to 24.
All eight new CCTV cameras, however, were installed in Town Two only, with the narrow intention of
enforcing the Western Cape Liquor Act,”
Weyers said.