By Daanyaal Matthews 

The Athlone Community, specifically Rylands and its surrounding areas, held a crime imbizo at the Belgravia High School on Saturday to discuss the growing issue of criminality within the community with relevant stakeholders.  

While the Western Cape has overall seen a decrease in crime, according to the Quarterly Crime Statistics, the stark reality is that many communities across the Cape Flat have experienced a paradigm unfounded by the data, a sentiment shared by Nahweed Mohammad, Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) Member, who elaborated on Sunday Live: 

“You can see that the crime stats, that SAPS has presented, is not really a true reflection of what is going on in the streets, that sparked some uproar yesterday [at the imbizo]”. 

Nahweed has applauded the NHW in alleviating the criminal element in the community. However, while the NHW efforts have been commendable, the community has experienced a surge in criminality beyond the scope of the denizens such as gun violence. 

According to Naweed, this is a growing issue with an -almost- expectation from authorities that Community Policing Forums (CPF), and NHW, are to fulfil roles usually expected from the authorities which allows crime to increase as denizens are not equipped to handle the problem.  

This frustration extends beyond Provincial borders with Naweed noting the growing sentiment that neither local, nor national, authorities are willing to assist given the political schism between the levels of Government, stating: 

“We are tired of being pushed around between law enforcement and SAPS i.e. political gains with national and local. You go on a national level; you ask for more policing, and they say they don’t have the resources. You go J.P. Smith is building this army of law enforcement, you ask for law enforcement presence, there are promises made such as ward 46, Athlone, is going to get dedicated officers that is going to patrol the streets but never materializes.” 

The City of Cape Town has responded to the allegation, on Mayco member of Safety and Security, JP Smith, with the following statement: 

“The ‘one officer per ward’ project was set aside due to LEAP in 2019, when the Premier approached the City. LEAP was an opportunity the City couldn’t allow to pass by. The choice was between 1 200 additional staff or 116 additional staff. This was a billion-rand investment offer from the provincial government in the fight against crime. The greater Athlone area benefits from that, with LEAP deployed to adjacent hotspot areas in Manenberg and Hanover Park. And, our continued investment into computer aided dispatch and other technology is allowing the City to maximise its limited resources. Law Enforcement responded to roughly 1 409 service requests in the past 100 days in the Athlone area. Combined, Traffic, Metro Police and Law Enforcement responded to close to 2 824 service requests in the past 100 days. The City enforcement and SAPS work closely across the metropole in the fight against crime. We are committed to helping SAPS where we can.”

While Naweed has been staunch on the fact that NHW have had added benefit to the greater area, they cannot be utilized to solve core criminality issues within a community wherein crime is escalating as it is not within the purview of the NHW to curtail to the extent needed as the issue is multifaceted and questions what the future of the community could be if frustrations continue to grow. 

“I don’t know how much longer us as citizens are going to be able to sustain this model of neighbourhood watching, as its all good and well from a religious perspective but people grow tired, they grow frustrated, and at the meeting it was frustration,” said Naweed.

Photo: Zahid Badroodien