The murder rate in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township has dropped by almost a third in the past year — well above the 22,5% decline for the Western Cape and the 9,9% reduction nationally.
The sprawling poverty-stricken apartheid township recorded 574 murders in the 2002/03 financial year, — about a sixth of all murders in the whole Western Cape. The number is now down to 358, a drop of 32,3%. And Khayelitsha no longer is the country’s murder capital.
”That’s a breakthrough,” said Western Cape police Commissioner Mzwandile Petros, who after his appointment in August last year has pursued people-oriented policing backed up by the required resources.
The drop in murders, and a falling rate of attempted murders, is the result of changes in the way police do their work: active liaison with residents through the local community policing forum (CPF) a boost in police numbers to 600, more vehicles and computers and the opening of two more police stations to raise the total to three.
”I’m not Mr Fix-It,” said Khayelitsha station commissioner Director Peter Jacobs. ”There is so much talent here. The question is how to develop and deploy it properly.”
Jacobs works three weekends out of four, as do all senior officers. It stands in stark contrast to early last year when only 30-odd police officers were on duty on weekends when most crime occurs. Staff numbers were almost seven-fold during the week.
After years of rocky relations between the police and the Khayelitsha CPF, relations have now have turned around. There are regular briefings and initiatives like joint patrols over the December festive season. Next month the CPF will launch two new forums under its umbrella to directly work with the two new police stations.
For its part the CPF is active in awareness campaigns, including domestic violence workshops and partnerships with child rights NGOs. It has also focused on monitoring Khayelitsha’s estimated 1 000 illegal shebeens to enforce a code of conduct including regulated opening hours.
”There’s still much work that’s to be done by both the SAPS [South African Police Service] and the community of Khayelitsha,” said CPF chairperson Mbuyseli Boqwana.
Crime prevention consultant Irvin Kinnes agreed. ”[The police] are doing something right. The challenge now is to sustain this drop. It is important that they seek workable relationships with the community.”
In an impoverished community, there is a heavy contestation of interests that must be resolved in everyone’s interest, he added.
Earlier this month the local branch of the South African National Civics Organisation marched to the police station, apparently unhappy that it was not being consulted and briefed separately by police brass.
Khayelitsha is one of the 21 presidential urban and rural development nodes. As such it stands first in line to receive extra resources to upgrade facilities such as transport links or housing.
Crime figures in brief
Compared with 1994/95:
Murders down by 23,7% (19 824 people murdered)
Attempted murders up by 12,2% (30 076 cases reported)
Culpable homicides down by 11,7% (11 096 cases)
Robbery with aggravating circumstances increased by 57,6% (133 658 cases)
Child abuse up by 111,9% (6 504 cases)
Commercial crime down by 11,4% (55 869 cases)
Carjacking down by 6,1% (compared with 2002/03) — 13 793 cases
Rapes up by 17,8% (52 733 cases) — Source: SAPS