Residents in Eldorado Park, south of Johannesburg, say that they intend to picket outside the local police station until something is done about the high levels of violence and crime in the area.
Earlier this month – two teenagers were killed in a drive-by shooting.
Disgruntled locals have been protesting outside the local police station as they claim that in the last three months, almost 20 people have been shot dead in alleged gang-related violence.
On Friday, disgruntled Eldorado Park residents blockaded the N12 with the burning tyres in protest of rising crime rates in their community, and officers were deployed to manage the situation. By this morning, calm was restored.
Dwain Ponsonby, a ward councillor in Eldorado Park says that things have gotten worse.
“It has escalated to an alarming rate. Promises have been made with the presidential visit in 2015, in 2019, the same thing, nothing has changed. We’ve been sitting at the police station now, setting out demands for the last two weeks, and nobody has the audacity to pitch,” laments the ward councillor.
Ponsonby recalls an incident where a shooting occurred while an official from the Johannesburg mayor’s office was in the area.
“We’re losing people daily, we actually had a visit the other day from an official from the mayor’s office, and whilst in discussion, a shooting happened, and he had first glance of going to the scene and seeing [of the incident] as well as the escalation of the shootings in Eldos,” he says.
