Nguni hostels fear for the worse
Vosloorus residents live near the crime-ridden Nguni Section hostel say they feel threatened by the alarming rate of random violence purportedly fermented by unknown people in the hostel after dark.
Vosloorus residents live near the crime-ridden Nguni Section hostel say they feel threatened by the alarming rate of random violence purportedly fermented by unknown people in the hostel after dark.
And with the recent huge exodus of migrant workers returning to the hostel after the Christmas holidays, local residents told Kathorus MAIL that they feared heightened tensions of random senseless shootings at night would escalate, creating a potential for violence and even killings that could affect the neighbourhood, and even spread to other areas.
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A number of concerned families, whose homes are near the hostel, spoke of what many described as continuous gun-fire which they claim keeps many of them awake and terrified at night. “The area sounds like a war-zone at night,” said a local resident and former ward councillor, who preferred not to be named, adding that this had been going on for as long as before the festive season.
Shortly before Christmas on December 7, Kathorus Mail carried an article about a gathering of hostel traditional leadership called by the emissaries of the Zulu monarch, King Goodwill Zwelithini. The king wanted to bring an end to tribal tensions, fearing that the fighting groups would carry their grievances back to the rural homestead during the holidays.
The aim of the high-profile meeting in which izinduna (tribal headmen) from other hostels in Kathorus, including other areas, such as Johannesburg and Tembisa, were invited to help quell simmering tribal rivalry between factions from Mahlabathi and Nkandla in the rural KZN.
Sources inside the crime-infested hostel linked the tension to the death of a man belonging to one of the groups reportedly shot and killed during a clash between two rival groups. However, a meeting to forge peace between the rival groups ended with no resolutions taken as many of the hostel headmen had already left for holidays to their families in KZN.
According to high-placed sources within the hostel hierarchy, the king had given his emissaries specific instructions to ensure that the rivalry, particularly at the Vosloorus Nguni hostel, be defused before the start of the festive holiday season, and the mass migration of workers to the rural homes in KZN.
Induna Ntshayi-Ntshayi admitted the sounds of gunfire at night was of great concern to hostel residents. But he refused to link the random discharge of fire at night as the work of hostel inmates, arguing that there was no evidence to support that assertion. The high-ranking hostel induna said that even though there were people who exchanged gunfire in the vicinity of the hostel at night, he said anyone with a firearm can use it at night. “None of us can dare walk out to see who is firing a pistol at that time of the night and why,” said the hostel headman.
Ntshayi-Ntshayi said the police must stop back-tracking on their responsibilities to safeguard the lives of all South Africans, including hostel residents. “It is the police’s responsibility to combat crime by fighting criminals instead of waiting for the shooting to die down and then send a whole army of officers to the scene, long after the perpetrators have disappeared,” said Ntshayi-Ntshayi.
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Brigadier Themba Denge, the head of the Vosloorus SAPS, responded by saying the police will always do everything possible to safeguard besieged hostel residents. However, he said the police cannot be everywhere to stop crime. He also cited a number of meetings he and his police management team have had with the hostel leaders and the warring factions in a bid to stop the violence.
“We have always urged hostel leaders to initiate anti-crime patrols or establish neighbourhood watch, or street committees, to deal with crime in their areas. As much as the police will always be on call to fight crime, I believe we can do a lot better together with the hostel residents,” Denge said.
He also hailed the current anti-crime intervention programmes and regular meeting his team had established with the residents.
“If hostel residents could form neighbourhood patrols during the pre-1994 political problems that engulfed Kathorus townships then, to protect themselves, why can’t they take the same initiative now to fight crime in the hostels?
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