BY Zara Nicholson
Democratic Alliance leader and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, together with about 300 Lentegeur residents, gathered to hold a night vigil for slain neighbourhood watch member Abduraghman Sydow and to protest against violence and drug abuse.
The residents met on a field on Sunday night where they were addressed by Zille about their fight against drug abuse in the area.
They later gathered and said a prayer close to where Sydow was killed.
Zille told the crowd the area's big problem "is the monster, tik" that was killing communities and taking children away.
She said she had only become aware of how serious the problem was after visiting families in communities where she had listened to mothers and fathers cry because their children were addicted to the drug.
"We have a big future, we all stood to fight apartheid but this is worse than apartheid," said Zille.
She said the fight against drug abuse in the area was everyone's responsibility.
Later Zille and residents marched to the Mitchell's Plain police station after residents expressed their anger about police arresting two neighbourhood watch members for assault.
Faziela Isaacs said the two men had been arrested on Thursday and had not appeared in court and were still in police custody.
Meanwhile, Community Safety MEC Leonard Ramatlakane has issued a strong warning against vigilantism and urged communities to work with police and the government in the fight against drugs, gangs and crime.
In a statement, he said they were working closely with police and would not allow "any individual or group to take the law into their own hands".
"Our fight against crime can only be successful if people respect the rule of law - this is one of the foundations of our hard-won democracy," the statement said.
He also said that in the past a number of people, including members of the police, had been murdered in the guise of a "fight against gangs and drugs" and that people were now serving long-term jail sentences because of it.
"We will not allow a repeat of those vigilante actions.
"In the same way that we have also been cracking down on drugs such as tik, gangs and crime, we will also deal with anyone suspected of taking the law into their own hands."