By Lee-Yandra Paulsen
“Cape Town CBD reportedly has the highest rate of common robberies in the country.”
This is according to Crime expert Dr Simon Howell, who commented on the recent criminality across the Cape Metro during VOC’s Breakfast show on Monday morning.
“The CBD is very difficult to police despite having all the resources, because of the everyday influx of people going to work and visiting the place. Common robberies and theft are very difficult to monitor,” said Howell.
Howell said more boots on the ground can temporarily alleviate the issue but more work needs to be done to eradicate crime in the City bowl completely.
“The short-term solution for the city to curb this crime is to spend more money and put more police there and install cameras. Long- term solution would be to find out why people take part in these crimes,” explained Howell.
According to IOL, residents in Bonteheuwel took to the streets in protest of attacks on police.
Howell said the protests come during a volatile situation between officials and residents.
“The community and police in Bonteheuwel are quite antagonistic towards each other as they see each other as enemies and not as allies. This is because when the police engage with the people it often ends up in violence,” said Howell.
He further stated that law officials can be trained to deal with the violence, but when a few police officers are on patrol with one vehicle they cannot deal with a whole group of residents attacking them. Subsequently, gang violence remains an issue on the Cape Flats with many gang leaders initiating younger members.
“Another issue is gangs are now recruiting younger children to attack police by stoning them, this can be seen as a type of initiation. In that instance it is very difficult to curb crime,” added Howell.
According to Howell, residents do not trust police or want to engage with them. This is major issue and halts police from executing their tasks adequately and getting information to ensure perpetrators of crimes are brought to book.
He further explained that the Community Police Forum (CPF) can play a significant role and serve as a link between the community and the police, but it must be done in an efficient manner.
“CPF’s becomes distracted by small petty politics rather than engaging the police more efficiently. If they can sort out the CPF modules then it would be a good way of interacting with the police, at the moment it seems to be quiet problematic.”
Howell concluded by expressing a multi-party strategy is required to dissolve issues of crime on the Cape Flats.
“The education department needs to get involved and start educating kids about the dangers of being involved in criminal activities. While police handle gangs and social development works with families. This complex issue requires all of society to work together, which means government departments should work well with each other,” ended Howell.
VOC
