From a 22-year-old German tourist missing for just over two weeks to a child sex trafficking ring operating under our noses and the death of a 3-year-old girl caught in the crossfire of what is believed to be gang-related violence.
These are three incidents reported yesterday among the countless that slip under the media’s radar daily. There are too many to cover, and something desperately needs to be done about it.
We are not the only ones fed up.
Civil rights organisation Action Society released a statement expressing great concern for the state of Cape Town police stations.
“Cape Town police stations consistently count under the country’s worst stations when it comes to murder, sexual assault, contact-related and common assault crimes,” said Kaylynn Palm, provincial Action Centre coordinator at Action Society.
“Unfortunately, we can see firsthand how the situation worsens daily.”
According to the statement, out of the country’s 30 worst-performing police stations, eight come from the Western Cape, of which seven are in Cape Town.
The latest crime statistics show that the Mfuleni station has the highest reported murder rate in the country. Just under 90 people were killed in this township between October and December 2022. During the same time, Delft, Nyanga, Harare, Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsa reported a combined 344 murders.
The Mfuleni station is also ranked 2nd worst for contact crimes, 4th worst for common assault, 10th for attempted murder, 12th for sexual offences, 13th for rape and 14th for assault to cause grievous bodily harm.
Mitchells Plain is the worst-performing station regarding common assault, contact-related crimes and sexual assault cases. This station reported 19 cases of sexual assault between October and December 2022. Combined, 22 other Cape Town stations (of the top 30 worst-performing stations) reported 128 cases of sexual assault.
Mitchells Plain station is also ranked 6th for attempted murder, 7th for contact crimes, 10th for common robbery and it features in the top 30 murder precincts.
“Whatever the government and the Minister of Police think they are doing to fight crime in the Western Cape is not working, in fact, it is getting worse; just look at your own statistics,” added Palm.
“People cannot continue to live in fear like this daily. It is time to implement workable solutions for South Africans to survive this war,” she said. “The provincial police management should be replaced with officers with integrity who are competent in their task. We need adequately resourced specialised units to fight organised crime and gangsterism and the courts should work properly.”
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Picture: JP Smith / Facebook