Community march to north police station over rampant crime

Ga-Rankuwa residents marched to the local police station to deliver a memorandum about crime in the area recently.

“We’re always reporting cases of crime but it’s always on the rise and nothing is being done by police,” said Mpho Maake, a resident of Ga-Rankuwa.

The march follows after a community meeting held on 27 April, to discuss the increase in crime. The community members claimed to be terrorised by crime with little to no intervention by police.

“We are here today, after the meeting we had on the 27th. The community gathered and raised their grievances about crime and we’ve given law enforcement authorities an ultimatum of seven days to respond to our complaints,” said Judy Letsholo, chairperson of the Ga-Rankuwa Against Crime and one of the event organisers.

The community drafted a memorandum from the issues discussed during the community meeting, wherein they raised issues such as the lack of police vehicles in the area and the high rate of vehicle spiking. They said this along with the police’s late response time was leaving the community vulnerable.

“The police should stop telling us about the lack of police vans. If there are no vans, then they should start patrolling on foot” said Letsholo.

“The police station also needs to invest more in the local CPF because they do more in the community than the police do.

“We can see that the community is more at the forefront than the police and they need to be equipped because they tackle crime more,” said Pastor Percival Moumakwe, a member of Ga-Rankuwa Against Crime.

Residents said that uncut trees in the veld were allowing criminals to hide and attack them. They said the low maintenance of street lights was also a major concern because walking around in the dark was very unsafe.

The community was unhappy about the absence of the Ga-Rankuwa station commander to accept the memorandum.

Visible policing commander Colonel Alfred Muliwa said he appreciated the community for raising their concerns.

“All that they have said is what we must implement. We are here to ensure that our community is safe and protected. From here, we’re going to sit as the management of Ga-Rankuwa police station and we’ll discuss this memorandum point by point. We’ll then come up with solutions so that we’re able to give the community a concrete response when they come back”

Inquiries have been sent to various departments about the community’s allegations and Rekord was yet to receive any comment.

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