- With a surge in gang violence in Lavender Hill and Steenberg, the City’s law enforcement agencies held a crime prevention operation targeting crime hotspots on Tuesday 19 March.
- According to the City, Hillview had become particularly volatile over drug turf and retaliation.
- In Lavender Hill, where the City installed gunshot detection cameras in March last year, around 563 shots were detected in the first year of the project.
With a surge in gang violence in Lavender Hill and Steenberg, the City’s law enforcement agencies held a crime prevention operation targeting crime hotspots on Tuesday 19 March.
According to the City, Hillview had become particularly volatile over drug turf and retaliation.
In a statement, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who joined law enforcement operations, said residents should not be living in daily fear.
“Communities are under siege by criminals, as we see here in Lavender Hill and Steenberg, where ongoing drug turf wars are being waged between rival gangs. We can never accept this situation as normal while residents live in daily fear of violent crime,” he said.
More than 120 enforcement officers targeted contraventions.
Drugs, firearms, liquor and traffic offence action resulted in close to 20 arrests for various offences.
Metro Police, law enforcement and traffic officers focused on identified hotspots for vehicle and foot patrols, roadblocks, and search warrants at suspected drug dens.
“To make Cape Town safer, we are investing in more City policing resources to help police fight crime. These resource investments enabled City officers to make almost 450 illegal firearm confiscations and double drug arrests to 8 000 in the last two financial years,” said Hill-Lewis.
Last year, in a pilot project, the City funded bullet proof vests for the entire Hillview Guardians Neighbourhood Watch due to gang conflict in the area.
A patroller from the Hillview Guardians Neighbourhood Watch, who asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, tells People’s Post that he simply did not feel safe even while donning his bullet proof vest during patrols.
“I am on the road every morning at 05:00,” he explains. “This morning I wore my bullet proof vest because shootings are taking place on a daily basis.”
“People are dying every day and the main problem is that innocent people are injured.”
Explaining the gang dynamics, he says the two rival gangs Junky Funkies and a new gang, the Funky Killers, are at each other’s throats.
“There are retaliation shootings,” he said. “Unfortunately, the community also protects the shooters.”
Aided by various safety tech, the City is steadily rolling out city-wide operations with the assistance of drones, gunshot detection cameras, CCTV, dash and bodycams.
In Lavender Hill, where the City installed gunshot detection cameras in March last year, around 563 shots were detected in the first year of the project.
“This intelligence has aided City crime prevention efforts, with confiscations of 368 ammunition rounds and 14 firearms over the last year locally. Twenty-one cases of murder and attempted murder were reported linked to gunshot detections, with 10 arrests linked to shot detections and firearm recoveries,” said Hill-Lewis.
Meanwhile, 21 cases of murder and attempted murder were reportedly linked to gunshot detections, with 10 arrests linked to shot detections and firearm recoveries.
Steenberg Community Policing Forum (CPF) chair Gavin Walburgh says while gang fighting had subsided in Steenberg, a young man was shot in the area on Saturday 16 March.
“We had a bit of shootings but most of it took place in the Muizenberg policing precinct, in Hillview,” he said.
“In Lavender Hill, we haven’t had any violent incident since December because we managed to have a cease-fire agreement between the gangs.”
Walburgh confirmed there has been a surge in gang shootings in Lavender Hill and Steenberg as it normally occurs during the school holidays.
“We hope it won’t cause any issues during the Easter weekend.”
Meanwhile, Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith said the City’s law enforcement agencies are constantly evolving to adapt to criminal threats.
“We are increasingly becoming a data-driven policing service and our three enforcement agencies – law enforcement, traffic, and metro – are constantly evolving to adapt to the ever-increasing and changing crime threats.”
