Civil rights groups urge state of disaster amid escalating gang violence in Western Cape
Four males were found with gunshot wounds in Kensington.
Image: file
In response to mass shootings linked to gang violence and extortion, civil rights organisations and political parties are calling for a Provincial State of Disaster. This comes as Parliament signs off on Premier Alan Winde’s R2.6 million annual package.
Just last week, as schools reopened , the Cape Crime Crisis Coalition (C4) renewed its call for a state of disaster after local government MEC Anton Bredell announced that he planned to ask Cabinet to declare ongoing fires and water challenges a natural disaster.
The police’s Serious and Violent Crime Unit was called to two separate crime scenes on Tuesday morning, where six lives were claimed and two others left wounded.
Police Commissioner Thembisile Patekile said despite 38,000 firearms being confiscated in the past five years, shootings continued.
Police spokesperson Colonel Andre Traut explained that police were responding to a shooting at 2:50 am in Melck Street, Ndabeni yesterday. Traut said Maitland police were alerted by a passer-by who reported a dog lying in a pool of blood.
“Upon responding, members discovered three women aged between 20 and 52, and an adult male, inside an informal dwelling. All four victims sustained fatal gunshot wounds and were declared deceased on the scene by medical personnel,” Traut detailed.
At the second scene, just five minutes later, police responded to a shooting at the Maitland cemetery in Voortrekker Road, Kensington.
Four males were found with gunshot wounds. Two men, aged 35 and 36, were declared deceased on the scene, while two others, aged 31 and 32, were transported to hospital.
Traut said the motive for this attack is believed to be gang-related.
Local ward councillor Cheslyn Steenberg said he is exploring all avenues to put an end to the gun violence in the community: “I support the call for a provincial state of disaster to be declared for the gang violence that we are seeing.
“We are going to call in Pagad, there is no two ways about it. We had a community meeting and the residents were clear on their position against the gang violence.
“We have given these gangs enough warnings so now we are going into further action by calling in Pagad and taking it up with the premier and the president, we need the political support of all spheres of government.
The shooting comes just days after police had a mass shooting in Marikana, Philippi East, on their hands where eight people were killed and two others critically wounded, linked to extortion.
Last week, C4 heeded the call for a state of disaster, with Winde’s office responding that policing was a national competency and that he was to meet with the national minister of police.
In a third letter issued this week, C4 said on-the-ground intelligence from Cape Flats communities indicates gang violence and murders are escalating.
“As you are well aware, gang leaders control the tempo of violence with chilling precision, switching terror on and off at will,” Reverend Dr Llewellyn MacMaster, Chairperson (C4) stated.
"In the past weekend alone, no less than 26 people have been killed in gang and gun-related shootings across the Cape Flats.
Jonathan Cupido, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor, said if a state of emergency is declared, interventions such as: Immediate budget shifts into violence prevention, mandatory recording of unlawful firearm discharge, a coordinated violence-prevention unit to rapid deployment of gang-exit programmes must be considered.
South African Communist Party (SACP) Provincial Secretary and spokesperson for Police Oversight and Community Safety, Benson Ngqentsu heeded the call for stablisation: “Against this background, we reiterate our call for the immediate appointment of a Provincial Intelligence Head in the province.
“These tragic incidents, including the ones that took place in Gugulethu and Maitland, underscore our longstanding call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare violent crime in Cape Town a national disaster."
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