A portfolio committee on community safety has sent out a desperate plea for additional law-enforcement officers to be deployed to gang-warfare riddled Westbury in Johannesburg.
The committee has strongly condemned the volatile situation in the area, pleading that the situation be dealt with before more lives are sacrificed at the hands of illegal guns.
Committee chairperson Bandile Masuku said: “The community of Westbury should no longer live in fear but enjoy their constitutional right to feel safe and secure in their neighborhood.”
This comes after more than 10 people were shot between Friday and Monday. Two people have since died.
The committee wrote to provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela earlier in February urging that policing and security be tightened in Westbury and surrounding communities like Eldorado Park.
In response, Mawela assured the committee of the Gauteng anti-gang unit’s full-time deployment in Westbury to get a handle on the widespread violence.
They [the committee] later summoned the management of the Sophiatown police station to appear before it and account for plans to fight violence and crime in the area.
Masuku added: “Evidently, these efforts have not yielded positive results as the area continues to suffer unbearable levels of crime and violence.
“Thus, the committee now calls for immediate intervention by provincial law-enforcement agencies to restore safety and security in the area.”
McKenzie braves gang violence to lead City Power into Westbury
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