Cape Town - Western Cape Police Commissioner Thembisile Patekile has expressed concern about crimes against children.
He made the remarks as statistics were unpacked in a joint press briefing with Premier Alan Winde and Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen.
Patekile said although the numbers were reduced, more must be done to protect children.
There were 39 murders and 81 attempted murders, and both decreased by 20, and 419 cases of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, with an increase of 34.
“Of concern is the number of children who have been killed, either during domestic violence or gang violence or by stray bullets. We are appealing that we work together, as the children are the future.”
Ilitha Labantu, a social service and educational organisation, agreed with Patekile about the protection of children.
It said in a statement: “The decrease in the statistics is not a reflection of the lived reality of communities with high rates of violence in which women and children are the recipients. A collective responsibility from all sectors of society is required in order for us to see real change.
“The sad reality is that the perpetrators are often known to the children, such as family members, friends, acquaintances and even those who occupy positions of authority, such as teachers.
“We need to ensure that those who perpetrate these crimes are brought to justice, and that we ensure that there are structures in place that will ensure that the rights and dignity of children are protected.
“Adding to this, building an environment where children can report is imperative. As an organisation we work closely with schools to educate children about the scourge of GBV. Through this we are able to build a relationship with the schools where children can have easy access to the services we provide.”
Patekile also highlighted the importance of the redeployment into hot-spot areas.
“It would make us happy. The real sad part is the most feared crimes which we have to fight. It was the strategy that we adopted which has assisted us to be where we are with the reduction in many categories. We have had additional deployment from national for two years.
“For the redeployment of members from where they are least needed to where they are needed the most, we had to move about 700 members.
“The community involvement, especially the neighbourhood watch and CPFs and the men’s dialogue and the liquor traders, we must appreciate the willingness to come and make sure there is safety in the communities they live in,” he said.
Patekile said crime might have been reduced but there were many suspects who still had to be apprehended.
“We have seen the reduction of crime, but not all the suspects have been arrested. You’ll still find that in the taxi industry, hit murders are still continuing, but not as often as they were before, as well as extortion.
“We acknowledge we didn’t make much on street robberies, especially places which are dark during the night. We will be working on hoping the money we have been given will assist community safety structures to get resources that will help reduce crime, especially during load shedding.”
Winde said there was a lot of evidence that showed that load shedding was used by criminals.
“We are asking ourselves about this so we can start to have a look at the impact of crime during load shedding. Do we inform neighbourhood watches prior to the scheduled time? How do we shift load shedding within the capabilities of shifting it in the crime hot spots?”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za