Call for action to end east gang’s ‘reign of terror’
Businesses, Mamelodi community at receiving end of the armed gang known as ‘Boko Haram’.
Mamelodi community has been urged to work with police and help provide information that may lead to the arrest of a gang allegedly terrorizing residents.
According to DA Gauteng community safety spokesperson Michael Shackleton, Gauteng community safety MEC Faith Mazibuko had said the gang, dubbed “Boko Haram” in Mamelodi, had become a serious threat to the community.
The group had been terrorising the business community and the residents in general of Mamelodi since around 2018.
“Apart from walking around with firearms, looting stores and robbing people, the gang is getting more and more involved with hijacking community projects contracts.”
Shackleton alleged that the gang was currently putting pressure on the contractor in charge of cleaning the Mamelodi West cemetery to withdraw from the contract so that they can get it.
“The gang also invaded the Mamelodi hostels in 2019, terrorising the residents and evicting some of them so they could move in,” Shackleton said. Spokesperson for the MEC Pinkie Numa said the police needed the co-operation of the community to put an end to the reign of terror by the so-called Boko Haram.
“Community members cannot allow gangs to continue to inflict fear. They must take charge and end gang violence in Mamelodi and other areas in Gauteng affected by gang violence.”Numa said police were investigating a number of cases related to alleged criminality by the group.
“A big challenge raised by the police is the withdrawal of cases or unwillingness on the part of complainants to provide statements to the police or even confirmation of the identities of suspects. “Some have cited fear of victimisation or intimidation as these so-called Boko Haram members live in the same communities. Police have also been alerted to possibilities of the same gang members paying complainants to withdraw reported cases,” Numa said.
Numa said the Tshwane district detectives were investigating about 15 cases, 10 of which were business robberies followed by those of extortion, malicious damage to property, arson, and attempted murder.
“In one of these business robbery cases, police arrested one suspect in an intelligence-led operation and were still searching for three others when the complainant allegedly approached the court behind the police’s back and withdrew the case as confirmed by the court on 20 May 2020.”
She said police were working closely with the relevant senior public prosecutor to ensure that the prosecutorial-led investigations would secure arrests backed by solid cases that could stand in court. “It is, therefore, not true that nothing has been done to put an end to this reign of terror.”
The DA said the MEC had established a task team in the Tshwane district to investigate and monitor crime involving the gang, “however, they are failing to procure results”. “The fact that this gang is continuing to terrorise the residents, clearly indicates that the established task team is failing and there is an urgent need for effective intervention.
“It is the responsibility of the South African Police Service to ensure the safety of our residents and to prevent such crimes,” the party said.
The DA called on both MEC Mazibuko and the Gauteng SAPS provincial commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela to put urgent measures in place to curb the violence and criminality.
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