Cops urge united anti-gang force

Cape Town - The police and Kewtown residents are jointly to man a container in the area that is to be used as a safety point, as part of a strategy to clamp down on gangsterism.

Last night the police hosted an imbizo in Kewtown to discuss the gang war and ways to end it.

A number of people have been shot in Kewtown in an intensifying gang war between the Americans and the Playboys.

Police have arrested a 15-, 17- and 19-year-old in connection with a shooting in which five-month-old Qadicia Isaacs was wounded in the arm. Police are looking for two other suspects.

The baby’s grandmother, Badruneesa Isaacs, 39, was wounded in the shoulder and Isaacs’s brother, Cedric Brown-Hendricks, in the chest. They were in their home when stray bullets struck them.

Speaking to the Cape Argus on Thursday, Yusuf Isaacs said his wife and Brown-Hendricks were in hospital, but Qadicia had been discharged.

Addressing residents on Thursday, Major-General Jeremy Vearey and Major-General Peter Jacobs said it was time for the community and police to work together, and for residents to be organised into structures.

Vearey is the cluster area commander for Nyanga, which includes Athlone, and Jacobs is from the provincial commissioner’s office.

Ward councillor Suzette Little said the neighbourhood had a committee in each block and there was no need for another structure.

She said, to loud applause, that the police were often not on call and when people wanted to volunteer information their voices were not heard.

One resident said the city council had reneged on its lease agreements by allowing drug dealers to operate from homes that it owned and let to tenants.

Vearey said it was time for the city, police, residents and the community police forum to work together and be a united front.

He reminded the community that structures existed through activities and not just through meetings.

The community had called for a permanent police presence in the area.

Jacobs said that this would not be practicable, as it would require eight police officers to man a centre over24 hours.

Instead, Jacobs said, the police would roll out the same service as they had in Steenberg, where a container had been placed in the community and was being used as a safety point.

Vearey and Jacobs said it was up to residents to rally together, to come out in their numbers and to take control of their streets.

lynnette.johns@inl.co.za

Cape Argus