By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Diepsloot residents says they live in perpetual fear owing to high crime levels in the area and blame the escalating crime rate on poor police visibility and an influx of undocumented foreign nationals.
Chairperson of the Diepsloot Community Forum Loyiso Toyiya claimed four people were brutally murdered in the past week, including another prominent community leader.
“He’s not an ordinary man. We can’t sit back as a community and watch while our leaders are being killed by criminals.”
Toyiya said the community would not stand down until President Cyril Ramaphosa visits the area.
“So, the community decided that they will go to the streets until the President of South Africa comes to Diepsloot, after he’s done resolving issues of Russia and Ukraine, we believe he will also come and resolve our issues in South Africa, which Diepsloot is part of South Africa.”
Police spokesperson Brenda Muridili says during the night, law enforcement agencies patrol with blue lights for visibility but they’re not able to access all areas.
“These are mostly residents from informal settlements that have challenges with environmental design. Police vehicles are not able to get into those congested areas for patrols especially at night as there is no electricity. During the day, there are foot patrols by all law enforcement agencies (police, crime wardens, metro police as well as CPF and patrollers).
“The station management will continue to engage the community leaders and community-based structures as well as other departments (Home Affairs, Housing, municipality etc) to find long term solutions to the service delivery issues in Diepsloot.
“In terms of crime, I can confirm that there were six murders in Diepsloot since the beginning of June.”
Muridili adds that there have been six murders reported in the area since the start of the month.
“We have made several arrests including six suspects in a case of attempted murder and house robbery, one for attempted murder case, three suspects in three separate cases of armed robbery, five for pointing of firearm (the firearm is one of the 14 that have been seized in Diepsloot since April), 82 people for drinking in public as they end up being targeted by armed robbers, closed two illegal shebeens that are generators of common robberies, assault GBH, GBV and domestic violence.”