More than 1,000 people have died in gang-related violence in Gqeberha’s northern areas over the last six years — some of them children as young as three years old, caught in the crossfire.
Of these deaths, more than 200 occurred in the last two years as the bloody gang wars continue to rage in one of Nelson Mandela Bay’s most dangerous areas.
In the last financial year, 62 people were gunned down, 17 of them children.
And while those of us living in the Bay are all too aware of the gang violence and its devastating impact on affected communities, the plight of those living with this violence and crime every day has not really received the same attention nationally as the gang violence on the Cape Flats.
That is until this week, when the northern areas gang violence took centre stage in parliament where a report by police committee chair Ian Cameron was adopted by MPs.
The debate stemmed from a petition on the crisis submitted by DA Eastern Cape MPL Yusuf Cassim, who had testified before the committee in May, presenting both statistical data and first-hand accounts from residents.
Cameron said the killings continued unabated despite promises and so-called interventions.
He said the portfolio committee’s oversight and Cassim’s petition laid bare the failings of the police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in addressing this.
Emphasising just how dire the situation is, Cassim said residents faced shootings, extortion and drug trafficking every day, and children grew up dodging bullets in an area where entire streets live under the control of organised crime syndicates.
“The northern areas have been forgotten and ignored for many years,” he said.
In his report, Cameron recommended that the police urgently address staffing, equipment and crime intelligence structures.
The report also recommended that police prioritise forensic processing in drug-related cases and intensify school-based and anti-drug operations.
The recommendations were adopted by parliament.
Our hope now, with the adoption of this report and its recommendations, is that we will start to see the change in the northern areas we — and especially those who live in affected areas — so desperately long for.
Nobody should ever have to worry about being hit by stray bullets, least of all innocent children attending school or playing in streets.
The Herald
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