Everson Luhanga
There is a dark cloud of fear hanging over the residents of Diepsloot after a series of recent murders have forced locals to put up high fences around their neighbourhood at night.
On Wednesday morning, the township’s community will mobilise and take to the streets.
They will march to the police station to hand over a memorandum to the police demanding greater protection from the authorities.
The action is a familiar one for these residents. They marched on the police station in April after seven people were shot dead in a single night.
Little has changed since then, and following a series of murders residents have erected a makeshift fence around the neighbourhood to keep out violent criminals at night.
The Community Policing Forum (CPF) leader for Diepsloot, Noza Mboweni, said four people were gunned down just this weekend.
In one incident, both parents were gunned down in front of their children.
He said the thugs steal from their victims after injuring or killing them. “They would take the phones, money, and other belongings.
“We are dying while we have the police to fight the thugs,” he said.
“We are going to the police station to ask for help and protection. We can’t keep on living in fear.”
He said thugs have taken over the community. “We are pleading with the police to patrol the streets of Diepsloot.
“We don’t get help the way we used to get when police Minister Bheki Cele left his officers on the ground. There was a sense of peace then. But it was like a borrowed peace and it is gone. We are back being harassed by the thugs.”
Another leader of the community in extension 1, Thabo Makamo, told Scrolla.Africa that there is a group of men who terrorise the community.
He said in the struggle for peace and security, many residents have installed steel gates around all of the main entrances of their neighbourhood to protect themselves from violent criminals.
Thabo said the gates open at about 06:30am and close at about 7pm in the evening, creating a de facto curfew for the community.
Most people make sure they are in their homes by 7pm
“It is not our intention to lock ourselves into the houses that early. We are in trouble,” said Thabo.
He said the community had a brief period of peace after one innocent Zimbabwean man, Elvis Nyathi, was murdered in an act of mob justice.
When minister Cele brought in the extra police forces, there was peace. That period was short lived, and is now long gone.
Video: Residents have erected to keep criminals around the area away at nighttime.
Source: Everson Luhanga
