Police under pressure innie Kaap

POLICE are under pressure to develop a strategy to tackle the rising scourge of crime following a series of mass killings that shocked the Western Cape this week.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu expressed outrage after seven men were gunned down at a home in the Kanana informal settlement in Gugulethu.

He was also alarmed by other incidents in the province, including the discovery of the bodies of three men in Samora Machel last Tuesday and a shooting in Nyanga that led to three suspected hijackers being killed on Thursday.

Mchunu said: “There is no doubt that the Cape Flats in Cape Town have indeed become the killing fields of the Western Cape, with the latest shooting of 7 people in Gugulethu. 

“What the Police Ministry and Police Top Management must refuse to do is to treat this as a normal trend and keep the normal methods of policing in place.” 

Cape Flats Safety Forum chairperson Abie Isaacs said residents are furious and want an urgent strategy to address the gun violence.

Isaacs said: “We’ve consistently been calling for a special probe into gun violence, specifically that has been prevalent in and around the Cape Flats. 

“We’ve also been consistent and will continue to lobby for the South African National Defence Force as a force multiplier to the police.

“Once the areas are stabilised and normalised, then it also gives time for the agencies to go back to the drawing board and not have conventional policing in an unconventional environment, because this is clearly what's happening.”

Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, said a loaded assault rifle was recovered in Gugulethu over the weekend, and the City has sent additional resources to support SAPS in known gang and extortion hotspots.

Smith said: “The kind of firepower in the hands of criminals is of grave concern…. 

“We simply need to stem the flow of guns onto our streets…”