CAPE TOWN - Local police are fighting a new battle. They are struggling to maintain law and order in newly-formed informal settlements such as Covid, Lockdown, Sanitiser and Social Distancing.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa confirmed that the formation of these informal settlements has put a strain on the service.
She said new settlements have sprung up in Delft, Mfuleni, Kraaifontein, Harare and Lingelethu.
“This places a strain on policing resources in the areas as the SAPS has to police these new informal settlements. Difficult as it can be, but police render a policing service to these communities.”
Compounding the issue was the lack of access roads between the dwellings for police vehicles to patrol and access crime scenes, she said.
“Poor lighting, shacks not numbered for identification of addresses, residents of the informal areas do not know one another, since the settlements are new. There exist no leadership structures yet for consultation by police on common concerns and interventions.”
With additional people moving into these precincts, the affected police stations see an increase in crime incidents recorded, she said.
The City’s Law Enforcement spokesperson Wayne Dyason said: “The City’s Law Enforcement Department does what it can within its mandate and available resources to assist in fighting crime across the metropole. Law Enforcement officers operate in support of the SAPS as the lead agency in fighting crime.”
Two bodies were recovered by police in a stream in the Covid informal settlement and two more are still missing after they were allegedly beaten and thrown into the river by the community.
The four were accused of theft. Lockdown informal settlement made headlines last year after three relatives were killed in a hail of bullets, apparently in an argument over warm alcohol. Khayelitsha alone has 10 new informal settlements.
Over the past 16 months, there have been 1 078 attempts of illegal land occupations across the Western Cape, with the majority in Cape Town.
For the 2020/21 financial year, the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements said it spent more than R355.8 million to prevent illegal land invasions and the occupation of completed units.
In 2014, Judge Kate O'Regan and advocate Vusi Pikoli chaired a commission of inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha. The commission found that there were serious, overlapping policing inefficiencies.
These included a lack of regular patrols, unanswered phones at police stations, poor detective work, widespread vigilante killings and policing based on “chance and luck” and not on “intelligence”. It also showed that there was a breakdown in relations between the police and the community.
In 2013, hope for the community was renewed after it was promised a new R107 million state of the art police station to be built in Makhaza. The station would have taken the burden off Harare and Lingelethu police stations but it was never built. Eight years later, and Makhaza is no closer to receiving a dedicated police station.
“We come from different areas across Cape Town,” said Tom from Covid in Mfuleni. “I do not know my neighbour and we often do not talk much to each other. That makes it easier for criminals to settle with us.”
There are no basic services like electricity and water. “If I hear someone screaming close to my shack, I put items on the door so that they do not run into my shack. I am also scared,” said Tom.
Weekend Argus