There is no doubt that people have lost hope that our government will ever win the battle against crime in our societies. The killings of people are becoming a norm.
The recent shooting at Ntlangano Crescent in Nyanga on Sunday 15 October, was enough evidence to believe that many people have given up.
Communities have accepted that nothing will ever change in their lives or situations.
As I was on the scene, looking at their body language and listening to some conversations, they seemed not to be scared anymore. Residents were even joking about the incident.
Equally, I don’t think the perpetrators are concerned about the police.
The Ntlangano Crescent killing happened a few metres away from the Nyanga Police Station.
It happened a few days after the Minister of Police Bheki Cele launched the Safer Festive Season Campaign in Khayelitsha on Friday 13 October.
The ‘funny’ part was that it occurred while the KTC residents in the Gugulethu policing precinct were having a prayer service following a spate of killing incidents in the area.
The criminals are dictating to us. No one has an answer to resolve the calamity facing our communities. We are all lost for words.
Listening to the Nyanga Community Policing Forum secretary, Dumisani Qwebe’s comments about the incident, I was left hopeless.
His utterances said it all when he urged Cele to deploy all the police units into the area. It is clear that there is no turning back from the criminals. Our police have their backs against the wall. The reality is we can’t shift the blame to them.
We must ask ourselves, what is our role as the community?
There are certain individuals, especially parents, who hide their sons who are criminals.
The traditional healers assist the criminals by giving them muthi before they commit some of these heinous crimes.
We can blame our crime intelligence and accuse them of failing us, but the reality is we fail to report suspicious things to them. All we need is to stand up as a community and unite against crime. Fighting crime is everyone’s business not only the officers.