Everyone in Hout Bay agrees: the tipping-point was the murder of Gerhard Vergeer on Sunday March 13 last year.
Vergeer, his wife and three children had arrived in the postcard-pretty Hout Bay valley from Mpumalanga and were staying at a local guesthouse ahead of the Pick ’n Pay Argus Cycle tour.
A five-man gang entered the family’s room and shot the 45-year-old Vergeer three times in front of his wife and son before making off with cellphones, odd bits of jewellery and cash. Two suspects living in the nearby informal settlement, Mandela Park, were later charged.
Vergeer’s murder galvanised Hout Bay, once a rustic village but now a booming suburb (or ”republic”, as some residents put it) with more than 43 000 residents in three distinct enclaves.
Black residents are confined to the overcrowded Imizamo Yethu, which sprawls over the slopes of Skoorsteenkop; coloured people live in the dense, bleak township of Hangberg near the harbour across the bay; white people are sandwiched in the verdant armpit between — some in mansions worth up to-R11 million.
A recent University of Cape Town study showed a fiftyfold increase in the population of Imizamu Yethu from 326 in 1985 to about 16 505 today.
Overall, unemployment stands at about 30%, and in recent years the valley has been plagued by crime. A series of vicious attacks on residents at home, often by gangs who bashed down front doors, assaulted occupants and made off with whatever they could grab, left whites terrified.
Imizamo Yethu residents were also suffering at the hands of ruthless criminals, some of whom lived among them. Gang activity and crime levels were just as worrying in Hangberg.
In 2004 there were 900 property-related offences, 754 violent crimes and 17 murders, with about 30 break-ins reported every week. A demoralised and under-resourced police service was clearly not coping, and there was rising alarm that property values and tourism would suffer. Residents decided to do something themselves.
About 700 attended the first meeting of the Hout Bay Neighbourhood Watch shortly after Vergeer’s murder, and estate agent Matt Mercer was elected inaugural chairperson.
”We wanted a solution. We divided Hout Bay into about 28 sectors and appointed a leader for each. The sector leader then organised community meetings to discuss crime.”
A key breakthrough was white residents’ recognition that the Imizamo Yethu is a permanent township, not a temporary camp.
Mercer said suburbanites who generally kept to themselves began meeting and working out a plan. ”People walked across the street and introduced themselves to their neighbours,” he said.
Residents were advised on how to deter and avoid opportunistic petty crime. But the watch prides itself most on its 24-hour presence and ability to communicate via e-mail, two-way radio and word of mouth. It works closely with two local security companies, which have sponsored a radio network that allows residents to report suspicious behaviour to Watchcon, the neighbourhood watch headquarters. Watchcon, in turn, alerts police and security companies.
”It’s not uncommon for an alarm activation to trigger a response of eight to 10 vehicles in under three minutes,” said Mercer
About 200 do regular patrols — one three-hour shift every seven weeks. Property-related crimes have been slashed to 210 a year and violent crimes to 209. And new R8-million police station has been opened.
Imizamo Yethu resident and local South African Communist Party chair, Luvuyo Nongabe, is the township’s neighbourhood watch coordinator. The watch had freed the SAPS to focus on crime and helped broaden the community’s partnership with other Hout Bay residents, he said — but much still needed to be done.
”Housebreakings, drug abuse and violent crime are a problem. We need street lights and a way to deal with the juvenile criminals in our midst,” said Nongabe.
The watch now has 2 000 members — 60 of them in Imizamo Yetho. But security costs are high. The radio handset sets you back about R1 600 (200 have been sold) and the average monthly subscription for armed response is R200.
Marga Haywood, the formidable chairperson of the Hout Bay Community Policing Forum representing 24 community organisations, pointed out that this is beyond the ”poorest of the poor”, who most need protection, and even some middle-class residents
Haywood is determined to use the law to force the government to meet its constitutional obligation to provide a healthy and safe environment.
A legal consultant, former state prosecutor, mother of five and breast cancer survivor, she has lived in the area since 1993 and is passionate about Hout Bay.
In August 2005, she and 51 other civilians and police marched through the streets of Imizamo Yethu at midnight in a symbolic statement. Immediately afterwards, Hout Bay experienced its first crime-free week.
Heywood described the march as ”a psychological victory. We showed the criminals that they were not untouchable and that Imizamo Yethu was not a no-go zone. Residents were so pleased to see us that they switched on all their lights.”