The community of Westbury in Johannesburg say they do not believe that a temporary deployment of additional police to the area, will curb the ongoing gang-related violence.
This follows the announcement by Police Minister Bheki Cele that a specialised task force will be deployed to Westbury for the next three months, in an attempt to combat gang violence and the recent increase in crime.
Just two weeks ago, six separate shooting incidents claimed the lives of two people and left 11 others injured.
“ The challenge that we have is that it must not be for a short space of time. For example, now this is for three months and it has been happening here for many years now and we don’t have more police visibility in the community. So, my question is, this is a good initiative but what happens after three months. Does it stop, does it go because they need to clean up the community and the violence is terrorising the poor children and the families here and it’s nice to stand here and say we will do all this and patrol and stop the violence and all that but how do you combat it as a permanent solution,” says community leader, Ridwaan Sallie.
Minister Cele has assured the community that the place will be safer:
