Members of the Great Commission Ministers Network in Khayelitsha are appealing to all community stakeholders to unite against crime and gender-based violence.
The request follows the killing of five people in Endlovini informal settlement on Monday 14 March.
The deceased, four men and a woman, were all shot and killed execution-style. They are all between age 25 and 35.
The commission said police alone cannot win the battle against crime.
The commission, an organisation for religious leaders from Khayelitsha and surrounding areas, is aimed at to uniting all the churches so they all speak with one voice.
The commission’s vice-chair (and leader of Promise Keepers Family Church in Mandela Park) Pastor Sakhele Kula described the incident as “the last straw”.
He also said one life lost is one too many.
“As church leaders cannot keep quiet when our children are killed by heartless people on the streets. It is our duty as church leaders to intervene spiritually and pastorally to address all the social ills in our communities.”
Kula said, regardless of what they have done, nobody had the right to kill another person.
“People must stop taking the law into their own hands,” he said. “You can’t correct the wrongdoing by committing another crime. Police are there to protect us as the community. We must report anything that we believe is wrong to the nearest police station.”
Provincial police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said police had initiated a 72-hour activation plan in search of yet-to-be-identified gunmen who killed five people at Endlovini informal settlement in Khayelitsha on Monday morning.
She said crime experts are still scouring the scene where the murders occurred.
Potelwa said: “Reports at the disposal of police indicate that unknown gunmen approached shacks located at the Monwabisi Park informal settlement in Endlovini, Khayelitsha in the early hours of this morning and fired shots. A woman and four men were as a result killed.”
She said organised crime detectives are investigating the murders.
Potelwa said the victims who are yet to be identified are estimated between ages 25 and 35.
Anyone with info that could assist the investigation is urged to contact the police on 08600 10111