On the weekend of March 15 it literally rained bullets in Nyanga.
The revelation was made by Mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith, after the ShotSpotter gun detection system showed more than 400 shots were fired in less than 24 hours. That is staggering.
That is a challenge by criminals to the system to say: “While you are sleeping we are running this country.”
How on earth does a country with a state security agency not pick that up before it happens? But one other question would be, does the country really have intelligence? These questions were asked during the commission into state capture involving the Guptas.
I now conclude that as a country we need to admit that we are in hell. Crime statistics have always put Nyanga on top of the list of the number of serious violent crimes but at least for the last two years it has been doing okay. But what went wrong now? Who dropped the ball to land us in this situation?
My naivety tells me the intelligence should be on the front foot to detect such dangers. Such a high number of shots is a concern not only to Nyanga residents but to the entire country.
This is war. This is an out challenge to the police of the country. Those that I have spoken to in the area told me of the extreme fear they had. Most people struggled to sleep.
Mr Smith is on record admitting that a bullet falling back down to the ground at speeds of around 250km/h is still enough to kill, seriously injure or to damage property. Imagine in those 400 shots what would have happened to many properties in the area. I think there is carelessness on the side of the system too.
Nyanga police station is not far from where the incident happened. They could hear the noise and attend to the scene. What did they do? Surely nothing, waiting for someone to open a case. Knowing the police and the way they operate in this government, they will never attend a scene of any kind unless one goes and opens a case. I have seen incidents where police just refuse to attend because no one has opened a case.
During the apartheid government or time of the independent states, police were effective because they never passed people fighting on the streets. Police would not pass a person urinating publicly. Today they watch people fight, women getting attacked and accidents happening without doing anything because it is not in their precinct. You are a policeman in Nyanga, not in Mitchell’s Plain even if you are driving a police van in full uniform. What nonsense is that? I am told that police were alerted to the exact location of each incident. The City claimed to have registered a criminal docket at Nyanga SAPS, for the unlawful discharge of a firearm.
That is all we are hearing. In fact I have heard many openings of cases but not a final outcome of those cases. I just think this is how we are silenced. Those in charge know that after the incidents, there is no follow up. I bet my last cent, the hearing of this incident was actually the end of it.
The only thing I can guarantee you, is that a similar incident will happen whether in Manenberg, Mitchell’s Plain, Khayelitsha or Mfuleni. Take it from me, this is not the last of its kind.
Are we doing enough as a community to protect ourselves? No, and there is nothing we can do. As poor communities we are still shocked about the number of guns out there. As community members we want to know where all these guns are coming from.
There are a few incidents where we heard of police selling guns to the criminals. I know there was one police officer that was recently arrested in Mitchell’s Plain for selling guns. But is he the only one? Who is selling guns to the people of Soweto, Umlazi in KZN and Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape?
For us to be safe we need proper policing. For the country to be safe, we need a super intelligence system. We need intelligence led policing that will stop guns and drugs coming to the country. Rest assured that what happened in Nyanga will be used to campaign soon. That is all they know. This will be a political thing rather than a life and death concern. Politicians will find something to play about.
Everywhere in the country there is criminal warfare carrying on.
To the government, please stop this war before it escalates to something else.