By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minister of police Bheki Cele has engaged with residents of Kagiso following the gang rape of eight women and the violent protests.
Cele kicked off the imbizo in West Village, Krugersdorp on Saturday, following recent protests over crime and illegal mining.
The imbizo enable residents to discuss and engage the Police ministry on crimes afflicting the community, and assist officials in establishing long-term interventions.
On Sunday, both Cele and Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola informed Kagiso residents that a request for the intervention of the SANDF will be made.
This follows calls by residents of Kagiso for the army to be deployed to combat illegal mining – but Cele insists his men and women are capable of fighting the scourge.
In the meantime, however, specialised SAPS units will be deployed to the West Rand from Monday.
“We will deploy the highly trained TRT, NIU and Special Task Force and K9 teams to make sure we flush out all undesirable elements in this area. Whoever comes with fire will be met with fire. We ask for space to conduct these operations and request the community to assist us, work closely with us and ensure we bring perpetrators to book through court processes.”
Cele said the allegations of police corruption and inadequate service delivery at stations would be probed at a provincial level and acted on.
These Task Teams are expected to hit the ground running, with intelligence gathering and analysis remaining as one of the key operational approaches.
Gauteng Premier, David Makhura, said the country has become ungovernable and criminals are responsible.
Makhura applauded members of the community who’ve taken it onto themselves to help fight criminality in their areas.
“We have a lot of community members here who are saying they’re not going to sit back and wait for the government. When crime is there they are already on the ground, so which means the government… we have to be with this community,” Makhura said.
“Let me tell you, last night I slept at 1am, you know why? I was with the police in Ivory Park, and then we were in Eldorado Park with MEC Mazibuko… and on the ground we found lots of people in the communities, they are not armed, but they’re bold, they’re participating in crime prevention… so we want to work together to fight crime… our country is ungovernable as we speak right now, the criminals have taken over,” he said.
Meanwhile the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) has ordered some 200 soldiers to be on standby for deployment as “SA is gradually deteriorating into unrest due to criminality”.
The order, dated August 6 and issued by Maj-Gen Patrick Dube, general officer commanding the Army’s infantry formation, states that the soldiers are necessary “in anticipation of deploying in co-operation with the SAPS”.
“It is foreseen that the SANDF might be called to play their secondary role to go on 24-hour standby in anticipation” of further unrest.
The order follows a military command council meeting last week where generals were warned to be on high alert. According to military sources, the generals were warned that all units needed to maintain maximum security with immediate effect in light of the increasing incidents of violence.