The community of Ocean View demanded answers from provincial police at an imbizo held on Thursday 11 May, with their main concerns highlighted as murder, robberies and the lack of police resources.
Residents were allowed to talk to police management about their concerns.
First to address the panel, PR councillor Nadia Satarien, questioned why it had to take a mass murder of six people for police to call an imbizo in the area.
“My question is, why did it take a mass shooting for Ocean View to have an imbizo?
“I am not here to bash anyone. I think provincial needs to talk about giving police resources that are needed. I believe there are 17 vacancies at this police station.
Resident Bonita Watson questioned service delivery issues after her house was allegedly burgled.
“Our house was burgled and when we called the cops at 03:00 they arrived after 07:00 in the morning. I hand-delivered the suspects to the cops, I had to pay people to round them up. I went to the police at around noon when I saw one of the suspects in the streets.
Meanwhile, Eugene Ackerman, an ex-policeman from Ocean View, said what bothered him most was the spate of murders in the area.
“I just want to know why there was no police intervention.
“The norm in Ocean View is house robberies and the criminals are full of tactics. Sunday morning, my sister-in-law had a house robbery and two weeks ago, another relative was robbed at 03:00 at gunpoint. Possessions were taken and police were called in. They said she cannot lay a charge because we did not know who the people were.”
Ackerman further questioned why Ocean View was not declared a red zone area.
“With all these murders in the area, why is Ocean View left out in the dark and why can’t police get rid of these drug houses in Ocean View because that is the biggest problem.”
Another resident pointed out that nothing was being done about the violence in the area.
“Murders in Ocean View have been happening for a long time. Six people were gunned down and now here’s the police.
“Hundreds of mothers have been crying in Ocean View and nothing has been done. Coloured children are dying in the Western Cape every day and nothing is being done.
“Bheki Cele, the Police Minister, he can’t even come to Ocean View because we are coloureds, but when murders happen in black communities, he is there but Ocean View coloured people are never recognised.”
Meanwhile, responding to questions on lack of resources, acting station commander for Ocean View Police Station Capt Nick Spreeth, said there was one vehicle available for visible policing in Ocean View and one for Masiphumelele.
However deputy provincial commissioner of visible policing, Maj Gen Mpumelelo Manci, claimed that Ocean View police had 16 vehicles of which 10 were used for visible policing.
“At the moment there are 16 vehicles. There should be 12 for visible policing but there are 10. The detectives, should be four but they are five. We know the vehicles are there.” He further added that the purpose of the imbizo was to strengthen the foundation of policing.
“We are coming from the period of Covid where there was a breach in our engagement. Now that Covid is behind us we need to continue to strengthen the foundation of policing in the Western Cape.
“We cannot do policing alone; we need other departments but most importantly we need the community leaders and community involvement. This imbizo is aimed at enhancing partnership between the police and the community, service delivery, purpose driven investigations, appropriate resources.
“We have met with the management of police and they told us they need more detectives, more members, more vehicles and those things will be delivered within a reasonable time.”
“We are thankful for the participation and engagement, it will take us forward in terms of improving.”
