As concerns about crime escalate, multiple stakeholders conducted an anti-crime march through the streets of Alexandra on 19 September to send a stern warning to criminals to stop terrorising the community.
Marchers sang revolutionary songs and carried anti-crime placards and a memorandum of understanding, which was read out and handed over to the Department of Justice at the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court by Joleen Hlongwa, a member of the ANC’s provincial executive committee.
The marchers comprised residents, councillors, members of the provincial legislature and ANC executive, military veterans, women and youth formations, civic and civil society organisations, leaders of the police cluster and the religious community.
The campaign warned those involved in crimes of child and women abuse, rape, nyaope [drug] peddling and police killings that ‘enough is enough’. They said the brutality criminals meted out to residents was a violation and an impediment to residents’ democratic and constitutional right to safety and peace.
Hlongwa said to stop crime, which instils fear in homes and the streets, residents needed to unite and reclaim the streets; recommit to societal values of peaceful co-existence; and men should assume their fatherly role to protect their spouses and children rather than abuse them. She said all crime should be reported and police killings must stop.
“Residents should report criminals and crime syndicates, even if they are relatives or friends, as their actions impact on everyone negatively. Also, their actions affect moral values which are essential to the good upbringing of children, and women need to feel respected as equal human beings,” said Hlongwa.
She urged residents to conduct anti-crime campaigns using legal means, revive street committees, report drug peddlers and users and those who violated the rights of other groups. She added that they also needed to work in collaboration with the police and community policing forums by creating conducive surroundings which will help improve police visibility and curb police killings.
Hlongwa urged the Department of Justice to deter crime by tightening criminal laws and their enforcement with harsher sentences.
Accepting the memorandum, department officials said they had established programmes to protect vulnerable groups, but they would only be effective if residents played their role as the eyes and ears of the justice system. This, by availing themselves as witnesses to crimes committed in homes.
