On July 24, the Gunsdown movement handed over a 12-point memorandum of demands to the Gauteng Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela at Eldorado Park SAPS.
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Journalist and young activist Shona Buhr with Cllr Dwain Ponsonby are the founders of the Gunsdown movement.
“Gunsdown is definitely a movement as it has surfaced very rapidly to all communities at large and has not been stagnant or confined to only one community,” said Buhr.
Some of the demands on the memorandum were: an immediate 72-hour activation operation in tracing the many illegal guns within our community. Removal of the station commander, Brigadier Maluleke by August 1.
An intensified 6-month intelligence driven operation that will deal with getting guns off the streets and closing drug dens.
A mobile station for Freedom Park as resources at Eldorado Park station are thinly stretched which impacts negatively on effective policing and permanent closure of all illegal taverns through the enforcement of by-laws.
The Eldorado Park SAPS had recently arrested 7 suspects possibly linked to the shootings, we asked Buhr how the movement felt about it: “it definitely is a step in the right direction, but is it a sustainable solution?
I don’t need SAPS to arrest 7 and then release 5 and do things cause a movement is putting them under pressure, we demand change.
“We need things to be done by our officers so that our community is safe, our kids are safe and our community members can sleep without any fear.”
On August 6 and 7, the Gunsdown Movement will officially be launched at the stadium in extension 9, August 7 is also the deadline for a response by the commissioner.
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On August 6, the launch will take place with sports at the stadium as well as the community, stakeholders as well as SAPS to come together to build relationships.
“Yes, sports will be taking place on August 6, if we say “put your guns down” we should provide an alternative and what better alternative than sports?
“The hopes are to gather as much interaction with the community for them to use this day of unity to their advantage to create better ways and different ways that we can tackle what we faced with,” said Buhr.
The Gunsdown Movement is said to continue with work after the official launch. According to Buhr, on Monday, August 8, the movement will start strategizing and implementing the solutions they came up with as communities at large at the launch weekend.
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