Community Safety is driving interventions to reduce gang related harms

The Minister of Community Safety, Albert Fritz, is appalled by the number of young people who have been struck by stray bullets in communities including Hanover Park and Manenberg. 

 

 

1. Riaz Cloete (8) who was shot in the head in Manenberg on Saturday afternoon, when playing on the road and has subsequently been hospitalitised; 

2. Chloe van der Westhuizen (4) from Hanover Park who has been discharged after being shot in the eye in Hanover Park on 25 March; and 

3. Declyn Wippenaar (13) from Hanover Park who was shot in the spine while playing in a football tournament in Philippi on Monday. 

 

Minister Fritz said, “I wish each of these young people a speedy recovery. It is unacceptable that people on the Cape Flats, particularly young people, are constantly being subjected to such acts of terrorism where the simply playing outside can result in their injury and even death. As a provincial government, we are hard at work implementing numerous initiatives aimed at putting an end to this and to restore calm to our communities.” 

 

 

• Working closely with SAPS, LEAP and other law enforcement agencies to ensure the permanent deployment of Law Enforcement Area Technical Teams in the six communities with the highest rates of murder and violence. Over time this will be extended to 16 communities across the Cape Flats, through the Area Based Teams;

• Putting put in place amendments to the Western Cape Liquor Act which will focus on reducing alcohol related harms and the abuse and violence that accompanies it;

• Setting up integrated Area Based Teams that bring together violence prevention, law enforcement, and Urban Design and Social Cohesion as part of integrated interventions aimed at both stopping violence in the short term and preventing it over the long term. 

 

Minister Fritz said, “Through the Western Cape Safety Plan, the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town have deployed approximately 500 LEAP officers to Delft, Nyanga, Khayelithsa, Philippi and Bishop Lavis. The contingent was redeployed in October 2020 to mitigate the impact of gang related crime. In March, we further deployed officers to Mitchells Plain and by the end of the year, we will deploy additional LEAP to Gugulethu, Mfuleni, Harare and Kraaifontein by the end of 2021.”