Cape Town - The ten 10 most wanted suspects in Atlantis have all been released on bail or parole. Their crimes range from assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, murder and rape.
Two of them, Neo Mohatle and Andile Kotyi, are wanted for murder, while Babalwa Sokomani, Julius Banda, John Moses, Lenito Gampies and Nteme Magqwetha were arrested for assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Andile Selekape and Adrian Booysen are wanted for rape and Rashied Peters was arrested for possession of a firearm. The Atlantis Community Policing Forum (CPF) spokesperson, Fabian Williams, said the suspects had been arrested.
“Whenever cases appear in court for bail we normally oppose any bail given to them. And we also oppose parolees coming back to Atlantis.
“But even though we do all of that, those people are still let go without us being aware of that beforehand.
“This makes it difficult for us and the community because we always think those offenders won’t be released.”
He said there is nothing they can do when the suspects are already outside. “All the people who are on that poster were either released on bail or parole.
“Some are wanted for parole violations, they were arrested, convicted and then after some years they were released, the police and the CPF were supposed to be told about their possible release, to keep an eye on them.
“I know some of the people on the poster, and I know the type of the people they are, they are dangerous, I wasn’t aware that they were out.
“One of the biggest problems about this is that there are victims here who were affected by the perpetrators and now there could be more,” Williams said.
Community activist, Barbara Rass, said police should put out rewards for the criminals on the run.
“Within the policing budget, there should be a reward. People don’t have money and if they see reward someone will come forward with information.
“And that is why there are a lot of cases. There is no proper follow-up with the police. Police have walked past perpetrators without recognising them until they do something again.”
Speaking about the rape accused, she said that the victims must be gripped with fear.
“If the victims know that the suspect is out there, then their self-esteem will be affected, they will live in fear and sometimes even blame themselves for what happened to them.
“The issue in the Atlantis area is that we don’t have a Family Violence and Child Protection Unit (FCS) that deals with rape cases. The dockets are piling up and we have a shortage of officers while Atlantis grows bigger and the crime increases.
“We urge those in power to assist in this and bring more manpower to Atlantis, victims have to go all the way to Milnerton.”
Anyone with any information about these suspects is kindly requested to contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111.
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za
Cape Argus