Lingelethu-West police station officers in Khayelitsha, together with members of the local Community Policing Forum (CPF) and neighbourhood watch (NHW) held a peaceful march on Freedom Day, Thursday 27 April.
The officials handed out pamphlets along the route in Ilitha Park and surrounding areas to create awareness against gender-based violence (GBV) and domestic violence.
Officials who were part of the event included local church leaders.
Police spokesperson, Sgt Xoliswa Nyalambisa described the campaign as part of fighting crime and violence in the area.
She urges the community to unite and work with the police.
“We need the community to reclaim their streets from the criminals. The community must not keep quiet when they see something wrong is happening to his or her neighbour. The GBV and domestic violence are becoming an issue in the precinct,” says Nyalambisa.
The station contact details were handed out to residents. She urges residents to report any problems or suspicious activity in the area.
She says it is important to the station to highlight GBV and domestic violence outside of the annual 16 days of activism, but fight crime 365 days a year.
Lingelethu-West CPF chair, Lunga Guza confessed that the weekly number of cases of GBV and domestic violence reported to the station is shocking.
He urges all stakeholders to come on board to fight anything that is crime-related.
“A week before we held a campaign the cases reported to the police station related to GBV and domestic violence were 18 and 25 respectively. That was reported during the week only, there was no weekend. The problem is that people from Ilitha Park don’t socialise. They drink indoors. When they are drunk they fight each other,” explains Guza.
He says the influx of people who are renting houses or flats in the area as the main cause of the escalating crime in the area and urges landlords to take responsibility for their tenants.
He states there is a new phenomenon of car hijacking in the area. “Many people in Ilitha Park buy online. So, the criminals are targeting the vehicles when they are going to deliver. On Thursday 27 April (the day of the campaign) we discovered three cars that were reportedly hijacked in that area on the previous day and we found all of them dumped nearby and some of them had keys inside,” says Guza.
He says the CPF cannot be silent while the criminals are destroying their community.