Nyanga has held onto its dubious title of murder capital, having once again recorded the highest number of murders in the country, in the past year.
This was revealed when the annual crime stats, for 2018/19 were released last week.
Despite the number of murders being 6.2% lower than last year, the high murder rate will be a major disappointment to the hardworking police officers of Nyanga and its community policing forum.
I have been told there are policemen and women who have more than 40 leave days due to them. Do you want to tell me that those officers won’t be burnt out and tired?
And wait until the politicians start using Nyanga to try to score political points.
The national crime stats are boring to me. Any repetition bores to the core. What is the solution to this?
If our leaders claim to be a people’s government and a caring government, what is stopping them from fighting crime in Nyanga?
And what has our “caring City” done to stop the killing in Nyanga?
I’m also curious to know what kind of weapons are used in the killings in Nyanga knives or guns?
And where do these guns come from? Can the politicians write another script, please, because this one is overplayed.
I suppose it will be rude of me to ask where is Bonteheuwel, Manenberg and Hanover Park in the picture. My instinct is to congratulate police in these areas. But if they are fooling us by not registering deaths, that will come back to haunt them.
If government claims to represent people and the same people they claim to be representing are dying, who then are they representing?
Nyanga has topped the crime list for 10 years and by the look of things it will continue for another 20 years.
But what are we doing, romanticising the death of black people? We smile when discussing stats in buses, trains and taxis. We have normalised killing and our government has done nothing to rescue its people.
As police minister after police minister comes and goes, Nyanga continues to bleed.
The three spheres of government have failed Nyanga’s people and should come together to do something to turn things around.
I’ve been to many site visits in Nyanga by members of parliamentary police portfolio committees and these authorities have seen the cases handled by one detective and have promised to do something. But have they done anything? I doubt it.
I have listened to the station commander telling these leaders about the challenges faced by the officers of the area and the police station. Where on earth would one detective be faced with more than 200 cases? Only in Nyanga.
How many station commanders must we change so that Nyanga can fight crime?
In the years that I have worked in the area I’ve always been convinced by all the station commanders who have worked there. I have seen them going all out to fight crime with their officers. I cannot blame them for what is happening in the area.
Each year when the crime stats are released, liquor dealers are blamed – but I don’t believe that crap. Yes, there might be those who are killed coming from the taverns and shebeens, but sober people are killed in their homes and streets – by sober perpetrators. Murderers and hijackers are not drunk and are not targeting drunk people either.
We want interventions in Nyanga, in fact, the whole country.
And don’t tell me that if your political party was in charge of this province, crime would have been reduced.
The government should have a plan to implement after the announcement of the annual crime stats, but there is no political will to do that. Lives are lost while we are busy pointing fingers at each other.
What worked in Hanover Park, Manenberg, Bonteheuwel, Umlazi can work too in Nyanga.
It cannot be business as usual when black and poor people are dying like this. Please bring resources to Nyanga and stop the killings.