Cape Town - Bishop Lavis organisations have vowed to fight until they get back the top police officers who were moved to other stations.
The group has held a number of demonstrations with demands. They have attributed the rise in gang violence to the removal of the colonels.
On Wednesday morning communities of Bishop Lavis, Kalksteenfontein and Bontheuwel had a peaceful protest at 35th Avenue, Valhalla Drive and Jakes Gerwel.
Acting Chairperson of the Bishop Lavis Development Forum Graham Lindorst said: “This is as a result of SAPS Management in the Western Cape who removed two very experienced Vispol (Visible Policing) officers from the local station without engaging the community on who to replace them and to mitigate the effect their removal will have on crime in the communities.
“We would hereby request assistance in shining the light on the utter disregard of SAPS to meaningfully engage and partner with the community on issues of crime.
Bishop Lavis Action Community's Amanda Davids said the colonels were able to go into the community and knew everything that happened on the ground.
“Good officers were taken away from us and we were given an officer from Mitchells Plain investigated for the missing guns.
“They took away a branch commander and replaced with someone who they wanted out.
“They replaced another one with someone who never comes out of the office, you call her after 4pm and you can't reach them.
“This is not how visible policing operates. The top cop never even bothered to go to the scene when eight people were killed.”
She said after the mass killing the Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) was deployed in the area.
“There have been shootings everyday since October. It's terrible what people have to live through.
“A woman had just left her car and went inside her house, while she was inside, gangsters shot all her windows. She could have been killed, that is a daily occurrence.
“We need people who know what is going on and who will go into the communities to gather intelligence from the people,” Davids said.
“All the trust was taken away, all our organisations sent an email to the PC and he sent a generic response. That is not a partnership.
“We will have another picket and hand over our memorandum, we tried the nice way, nothing is coming to the fore.”
Police spokesperson Andrè Traut said: “Kindly be advised that the matter you are referring to is an internal process, and on this basis the details cannot be discussed with third parties at this stage.”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za