Ditebogo killing: Cops slammed for lack of action

It took a five-year-old boy’s death for police to spring into action in Pretoria North in “the biggest intervention yet to help a community under siege by criminals”.

After a visit to the Phalane family, whose son, Ditebogo, died in the crossfire during a hijacking in his front yard, Police Minister Bheki Cele addressed hundreds of people at Jukulyn.

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He was accompanied by Public Order Policing members, tactical response teams and drone teams.

“They will be working 24 hours in shifts for three months,” said Cele’s spokesperson Lirandzu Themba.

“They are here to stabilise; they will only leave the area once there is stability.” But for many in the community it was too little too late.

“People are finished here,” said an elderly man. “Some are injured, they have lost things, properties have been damaged and he comes now… How can we trust them now?”

He said police were slow to respond in these areas.

“They come running for domestic violence issues and beat up the perpetrators. But when you call to tell them there is gun violence or a gun attack, they refuse to come.

“They are scared of guns, even though they have their own guns.”

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Sam Mphelo, a volunteer patroller of Block P of the township, said police were slow to act. His group of patrollers have dropped to 18 as many fear being killed.

“Last year, one of our patrollers was shot and killed with two other people during a business robbery at a wholesaler in the area.”

Mphelo said he also helped a victim of a car robbery in 2021 because “the police have been too slow to act on it”.

Hendrick Mncube said his car was stolen in April 2021. “I opened a case but it has never been attended to.”

But Themba said police would be doing their best to help the community, not only the Phalane family who were promised that police would crack the case.

She said the search for the perpetrators had not gone beyond South Africa’s borders.

“Police are following up on strong leads and we are roping in other agencies, tracking and tracing the suspects with technology.”