Sunnyside residents, police to work together to fight crime

"We are mobilizing the community to join hands with us, to share information…the community knows the drug dealers, criminals and those in possession of firearms in their community."

April 16, 2019

Felicia Nkhwashu 3 minutes read

Sunnyside residents have expressed fear of living in the area, complaining that police were of no help in curbing spiralling crime in the popular suburb.

Police provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela engaged with the community, ward councillors, CPF, pastors and the business forum in Sunnyside at Bronberg church in Sunnyside at the weekend.

Residents at the meeting said they had lost faith in the police and that the area had become unsafe over the years.

“Cases of mob justice in this area are on the rise, proof that people have lost trust in the police. We report matters but we never get feedback from the police after opening a case,” said a resident only identified as Gert.

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Another resident said she and her 23-year-old daughter did not feel safe anymore and that her daughter was even afraid of going to the bus station alone.

“I have been in Sunnyside since 1987 and we used to respect the police, now our police are friends with drug dealers, they take bribes from them,” said another resident Sarah Kofane.

But regional chairperson of Sanco Matlakala Mashishi applauded the police for a job well done and said those making it difficult for them to execute their duties were “the undocumented persons”.

“Those who are without documents should go back to their countries of origin because when they commit crimes they cannot be traced,” he said.

Deputy chairperson of Sunnyside CPF Joel Maepo said as much as the police were expected to do more in a congested area, the problem was lack of enough capacity to do so.

“The police station is too small to accommodate everyone… it services a big area,” he said.

Khulu Duba, a concerned resident, said Sunnyside was “not conducive to the police doing their work”.

“The [residential] units in this area are overcrowded and this results in overpopulation,” said Duba.

The residents had earlier been shown a presentation on crime statistics between April 2018 and March 2019 which indicated that Sunnyside was one of the highest crime contributors sitting 15th out of 1 000 stations nationwide.

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The statistics showed that the most reported crimes in Sunnyside were: common theft, corruption, bribery, shoplifting, contact crime like assault, which sat at 26 percent.

According to the statistics, Hatfield train station, Loftus stadium and liquor stores, were locations where theft of vehicles, and theft out of motor vehicle were most likely to occur, while smash and grabs were most likely on the Nelson Mandela Bridge and Fountain Valley circle.

Suspects were said to be mostly street children, car guards/parking assistants who easily changed location after committing a crime.

Mawela said the residents were shown the statistics to give them an accurate picture of the levels of crime and sensitise them to the need to work together with the police.

“We are mobilising the community to join hands with us and work together with us, working together means we share information. The community know the drug dealers in their communities, the criminals, they also know those who are in possession of firearms,” he said.

“But at times they are reluctant to share the information with the police because they do not trust our police officers, so this engagement will assist us build that trust with the community.”

Attendees jointly patrolled the streets of Sunnyside after the meeting.

Other hot spots suburbs mentioned was Arcadia, Hatfield and Muckleneuk.