Frustrated Xolani and Zolani township residents packed Tantyi Hall on Friday to address crime. A series of stabbings, rapes and robberies in the area over the last weekend have left the residents on edge.
Frustrated Xolani and Zolani township residents packed Tantyi Hall on Friday to address crime. A series of stabbings, rapes and robberies in the area over the last weekend have left the residents on edge.
Addressing the meeting was a panel which included Vuyani Kolisi, the Community Police Forum (CPF) chairperson and Captain Lennox Mntumni, the sector manager of the Crime Prevention Unit in Grahamstown.
According to Kolisi, there are lots of problems in Tantyi. “We want you to speak, so we can be able to provide solutions to these problems.
The CPF is for the purpose of communication between the police and the community,” he said. Almost everyone who addressed the panel spoke of a family living in Zolani whom the residents have accused of committing crime in the area.
The loudest applause of the night came when a man turned to the father of a suspected criminal, who was seated in the audience, and said, “We are sick and tired of the sons of this man, they must go, because we don’t want them here!”
In reference to the family, another resident said, “We will leave you for now, but if this thing continues, lizakutsh’ibhayi [all hell will break loose]!”
Kolisi occasionally had to intervene to defuse the anger of the residents. “We cannot remove anyone from their homes. The country’s Constitution doesn’t allow us to do that,it is against the law.
If you do that, you will be breaking the law and you will be the victim of the law,” he explained. One woman told the panel that after serious crimes are committed the criminals are taken away by the police, but come back the next day.
Another resident told the panel that sometimes when residents summon the police to a crime scene, police take more than an hour to arrive at the scene, and the excuse is often that there are no vans.
“But we see these vans parked outside taverns or parked at the homes of police officers’ girlfriends,” he said. Mntumni responded to some of the residents’ concerns.
Regarding the issue of suspected criminals who are released from custody the day after their arrest, he told the audience that police do not take the decision to prosecute a suspect, as this is the duty of the
prosecutor.
“We simply take down statements and send the dockets to the prosecutor, who evaluates the dockets, and makes the decision to prosecute or not.
If there is not enough evidence on the docket, then the prosecutor will release the suspect, and send back the docket to the police to investigate the matter further,” he explained.
With regard to dockets that get lost, Mntumni admitted there is a problem within the police force. “There are police officers who do not do their jobs properly. Five police officers are under suspension for not doing their jobs properly.
We are after them, and we will get rid of them, even if we are left with one police officer who does his job properly, instead of having hundred police officers who are not performing. We will have a clean police force that serves the people,” Mntumni explained.
The meeting ended after the election of eight committee members who will work with the CPF in coming up with practical recommendations.
