Police officers joined scores of Khayelitsha residents and community crime fighters for the Silence the Guns march across the township on Saturday.
Drawing support from nine police stations as well as prison officials, the City of Cape Town, the Khayelitsha Development Forum and Sanco, the march started at the back of Khwezi and ended in Makhaza , passing several crime hot spots along the way.
Khayelitsha sub-district commissioner Brigadier Mnoneleli Magobiyane said most of the crimes in Khayelitsha involved the use of guns, and he urged people to report such incidents.
“We want to silence the guns. We want to remove Khayelitsha as a hot spot. We hope this march is a start, and it will make residents speak out by reporting such cases.”
The Western Cape Provincial CPF Board’s Mitchell’s Plain sub-district chairperson, Justin Kumlehn, said: “It is imperative for the community to come out, stand together and help the police services combat the scourge of crime.”
Khayelitsha Development Forum acting chairperson Nodumo Kuthuka said efforts to tackle violent crime in the area needed community support.
“As we marched through the streets, people were asking serious questions, and others were very keen to join in and spread the word against guns. Crime affects them, and they want less of it,” she said.
Ms Kuthuka said the forum fully supported the march because “no one is safe here, extortion is very bad and it must be stopped”.
Khayelitsha CPF sub-district spokesman Zibula Phindile George said the community had had enough of innocent lives being lost to gun violence.
“We will work together to ensure that youth are kept active and distracted from drugs, crime. We want youths to swap guns for books,” said Mr George.
During the march, some residents had stopped them along the way to report crimes and that had led to the recovery of a gun, he said.
“This shows that our people want safer streets and communities. One gun is not enough, but it is a start.”
Chris Hani Arts School matric pupil Mivuyo Ngqutsela, who is a junior police commissioner, made a desperate plea to the community to protect girls, saying, “We live like animals who are hunted. We need our people to protect us.”
