The Newlands East community said they are living in fear following continuous ‘gang-related’ shootings which have claimed more than five lives recently. One of the residents, Samantha Smith said they live in constant fear and they now feel like prisoners in their own homes. “To avoid being caught in random shootings, I now lock myself inside my home but I still do not feel safe. How many more lives will be lost to senseless shootings. We are appealing to police to arrest people involved in criminal activities. Criminals are dangerous and they should be kept away from communities,” she said.
On Thursday, 15 September a young man succumbed to his injuries following a shoot-out with police. Provincial police spokesperson, Brigadier Jay Naicker said officers from Newlands East received intelligence driven information of a possible hit that was going to be carried out at a school in the area.
“They relayed the information to police officers from the Provincial Vehicle and Trio Task Team. Whilst the officers were patrolling the area, they spotted the vehicle used by the hitmen. Police officers who attempted to pull the vehicle over were met with gunfire from the occupants of the vehicle. Following a shootout the suspects fled in their vehicle with police officers in pursuit. When the men were cornered at a dead-end, two suspects alighted from the vehicle and fled into the bushes. The driver of the vehicle passed away due to injuries sustained during the shootout,” said Brig Naicker.
Police recovered an automatic rifle, two pistols, two-way radios and 40 rounds of ammunition in the suspect’s vehicle. “An investigation is underway to establish the identities of the two men who fled so that they can be brought to book. Newlands East police are investigating cases of attempted murder as well as unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition against the men,” he said.
Deputy provincial commissioner for visible policing, Major General Phumelele Makoba applauded police officers for following up on information that was received from the community. “This collaboration between police and the community at Newlands East must be celebrated and we appealing for other communities in the province who are experiencing such violent crimes to do the same. If we are going to win the war against crime, communities need to exposed these criminals even if they are your friends or relatives,” she said.
Chairperson of the sector 2 Newlands Community Police Forum (CPF), Allan Peterson sent condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones. “We should not be losing our young people in such a manner. We seem to be finding that a lot of young people are involved in criminal activities. We have been sitting in meetings asking ourselves what can we do to prevent shootings from taking place. Based on our investigations, we are finding that our young people seem to be attracted to a certain lifestyle where it could be due to circumstances such as poverty, absent parents and some children do not have a choice but to get involved in criminal activities because they come from impoverished backgrounds,” he said.
Peterson added that the CPF will be launching a youth desk where they will try and occupy the minds of our young people with positive activities. “The situation is getting so bad and we have been asking ourselves how did we come to the stage where there is so many shootings, and random rapid fires taking place in our communities. It has come to a stage where we are losing our young people. Residents are now coming together to try and find solutions for the youth to have better ways of life instead of being attracted to criminal activities.”
Peterson said they will be having a crime awareness campaign on 15 October. “Residents will get to meet and greet the new CPF members and the new Newlands East SAPS station commander. This will make our community see what SAPS and the CPF are trying to do to make our community a better place,” he said.
Police have appealed to anyone with information regarding criminal activities to contact Crime Stop on 08600-10111 or report criminality anonymously via the MySAPSApp.
