Cape Town - GOOD Party leader Patricia de Lille met Retreat residents to discuss safety and security in the area.
She said she went to the area to listen to people and hear their daily experiences. Residents gathered at the Square Hill Hall and raised their issues.
De Lille said: “They know best what kind of solutions they’re looking for. I know every quarter we release statistics but that is good for planning and budgeting.
“But what is more important is that people must feel safe in their homes, churches and schools, people don’t feel safe, women and children.”
De Lille added: “People live a stressful life because of this concern about safety. You always have to look behind you. I’m going to listen here today. They did come up with their solution and programmes to deal with this and unfortunately that was stopped.
“We must see how the community can get involved for their own safety. I intend to listen and not make promises. When it comes to safety we have our personal responsibility to do things for ourselves but also there is a role of the police, we and GOOD believe putting more boots on the ground alone is not the solution.
“You also have to look at the social economic conditions under which people are living. We need a lot of social workers to deal with children from a young age.”
The residents said they once had safety programmes and equipment but then all that ended when councillors changed and there was a demarcation.
Retreat Steenberg Civic Association chairperson Mark Solomons said: “One of the biggest programmes we started as a community was 11 years ago.
“We asked the officials if they could monitor a park in Lavender Hill but no one helped. We then installed CCTV cameras and had a control room at the hall.
“We proved it could work and we said we wanted to show the government that we could do it. We had a small camera system, we installed two.
“That project was halted when a new councillor came into the ward and said this side was no longer in their ward. The idea of this was not about someone sitting in front of the screen, but it was a process where we wanted to change the area.”
Among the speakers was axed Heathfield High School principal Wesley Neumann. He said the area needs more activists.
“Our communities need activists. We need to go back to the civics, to sport organisations, and school governing bodies. If we don’t do that we are going to be in the same place as now and maybe worse in five years,” Neumann said.
“As we are sitting here, 10 of our children will be killed on the Flats. Let that sink in.
“My question is, what are we doing to change that? Are we going to talk about politics, what people want to hear? People talk about developments but nothing has changed.”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za
Cape Argus