Cele assures Ennerdale community their demands will be heard

Minister of Police Bheki Cele has assured the Ennerdale community that their demands will not fall on deaf ears and will be addressed by police at both provincial and national level.

Cele accepted a memorandum of demands from Ennerdale, Finetown, Lawley and Meriteng residents in the South of Johannesburg on Tuesday.

They are calling for improved policing in the area.

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“In recent months there has been an exponential increase in crime, especially violent crime in the areas of Ennerdale, Lawley and Meriteng in keeping with the exponential increase in the growth of informal settlements surrounding these areas.”

The residents say they want to bring their plight to the attention of Cele.

“Our youth are being killed in their numbers without any recourse, our girls have become victims of rape, and gender-based violence in so-called lollie lounges (drug dens) and our community is victimized by police.”

Cele says he came to Ennerdale to hear the community’s complaints.

“If you don’t come to the community, you don’t hear the community but things that you do not know sometimes, are things that don’t come to you. Whenever I go see the community, I know that I will be bashed, but it’s correct because you get the real story and the real facts from the community.”

“So, I’m better equipped, I better understand what’s going on here which also arms me when I sit down with the national and provincial commissioner to say ‘let’s go and fix the community.’” Cele said.

Cele said he will “go through” the demands and revert back to the community.

The police minister has come under fire recently with mounting calls for him to resign.

Last week, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) joined a chorus of calls calling for him to go over his latest comments during a television interview.

Cele was talking about the mass gang rape that took place in an abandoned mine shaft in Krugersdorp last week as the country deals with an epidemic of gender-based violence (GBV), rape and murder cases ahead of Women’s Day on 9 August.

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