Johannesburg - Angry Diepsloot residents have called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to address them or face a total shutdown of the crime-ridden township north of Johannesburg.
The community’s anger was sparked by the murder of Pastor Vincent Sikhakhane, 40, at the Holiness Christian Revival Ministries last Friday by armed robbers who also left two congregants injured after robbing churchgoers.
There have been growing calls among community leaders for the national government to intervene. Loyiso Toyiya, one of the community leaders, told the Sunday Independent this week that in the past few weeks, there had been 22 murders in Diepsloot.
"This is beyond (Police Minister) Bheki Cele and (Gauteng premier) Panyaza Lesufi. We want permanent solutions. Cele made promises in April and they only lasted three months,” he said.
Ramaphosa's spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, hadn’t responded by the time of going to print to a question about whether the president would visit the area and engage with the residents.
In April, violent protests broke out in Diepsloot after the murder of Zimbabwean national, Elvis Nyathi, whose body was set alight. At the time, Cele promised to deploy over 50 officers from special units, including the tactical response team (TRT) and an additional 16 vehicles to help fight the scourge of crime.
According to the latest quarterly crime statistics for the 2022/23 financial year (April – June 2022), Diepsloot is among the country's top 30 policing precincts for rape, illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, as well as for assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm.
Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi also indicated that the department was part of the team that was involved in crime-combating efforts in Diepsloot between April and July following Nyathi’s murder.
However, Toyiya said the TRT, or amaBherete, were no longer in the area.
"What we want now can only be delivered by the president. Are they saying it's okay for people to live and die like this?” he asked.
In his reaction to the latest incident in Diepsloot, Lesufi promised to take the fight back to criminals, which he said simply meant capacitating law enforcement agencies.
"We have to get every cent that we have as the state to empower the police. We can’t rely on any other thing but the capacity of the state to confront this matter and attend to it,” he commented.
Lesufi said his new administration had finalised a new strategy to fight crime and that it has been costed.
"We believe it will assist us to arrest some of the situations that we have. We need every place in this country, in this province, in particular, to be under the watch and eyes of the police,” he said.
Lesufi added that there was a need to have CCTVs everywhere in communities and police officers in the field.
"We are moving the relevant budget and resources everywhere. We are confronting this problem of crime and lawlessness. This is pure lawlessness and we must close it and confront it,” he said.
The latest concerns about crime in Diepsloot come barely a month after Cele invited African Christian Democratic Party leader Rev Kenneth Meshoe to walk the streets of Diepsloot to realise how “peaceful” the place is since the intervention in April.
"I am inviting the reverend for us to go and walk the streets of Diepsloot together and forget this Diepsloot you see on TV. Let’s go to the real Diepsloot so that we are together,” Cele said in response to Meshoe’s statement in the National Assembly.
Meshoe had told the police minister that residents were complaining that there was a difference in the first two weeks after the intervention when 50 additional police personnel and 16 vehicles were introduced but that crime was increasing again. The community was again living in fear.