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Cape Flats residents to march on Parly

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Fed-up residents across the Cape Flats will mobilize for a protest to Parliament on Tuesday, to raise the alarm on gang violence. The Cape Flats Concerned Residents Association will be protesting to demand the deployment of the army in gang ridden areas on the Cape Flats. Chairman Ricardo Sedres said Manenberg, Hanover Park, and Mitchell’s Plain have seen consistent gang violence, which has claims scores of innocent lives.

“We believe the army will be of assistance to the police by closing down the affected areas until all guns and gangsters are removed because we don’t know what to do. We as the community are sick of what is going on,” said Sedres.

“There have been so many killings in Mitchell’s Plain. We had four killings in one day in Manenberg and it’s spilling over into the rest of the Cape Flats namely Lavender Hill.

The protest will be held in front of Parliament where the association will hand over a memorandum to the legislature.

The protest is open to the public and is an appeal from the residents of Hanover Park, Manenberg, Lavender Hill and Mitchell’s Plain. The march will take place Tuesday 19 March 2015 at 11am.

Sedres said the community has lost faith in the police due to corruption in these gang ridden areas.

“The community has lost trust in the police because when people report things it gets leaked out to the media and gangsters and this intimidates the people.”

Former Manenberg community safety co-ordinator Waheed Sokool said although the community is calling on the army “out of desperation”, this is not their function. He urged people to be specific about what they are demanding.

“It is the police’s job to regulate gangsterism but they fail to do so because of lack of resources. People have lost trust in the police but they fail to see that the police are under resourced,” says Sokool.

Meanwhile, provincial community safety MEC Dan Plato has welcomed the conviction of 28s leader Gerald “Gewald” Thomas and his 17 co-accused in the Cape Town High Court on Thursday.

“We congratulate all who have assisted in making sure the rein of anarchy of gangsterism has come to an end,” said Plato.

Thomas was found guilty of 53 charges which included seven murder charges, three attempted murder charges, 10 incitements of others to commit offences charges, 11 charges of unlawful possession of firearms and two racketeering charges. The 17 co-accused were all found guilty of various charges, most of them include murder.

Plato sees the case as an example that should be followed by similar cases to increase convictions to curb gangsterism.

“The conviction of ‘Geweld’ and his co-accused gangsters should be used as a model case of how to ensure that more convictions follow and that the gangsters responsible are removed from our streets,” he said.

The minister attributed the success on the community working closely with the safety and specialised units.

He believes that to increase convictions, a specialized and collaborative approach needs to be adopted. He has called for the re-introduction of specialised institutions such as the drug and gang units to curb drug pedaling and gangsterism.

“I have been calling for the reintroduction of the Specialised Gang and Drug units since 2011 as these units possess the necessary resources and expertise to investigate thoroughly and make concrete arrests which lead to convictions in court. We need the Specialised Gang and Drug Units which can deliver conviction ready court cases for our communities to be rid of the criminals responsible,” says Plato. VOC (Nailah Cornelissen)


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