MENSE in Cloetesville have called on police and the Stellenbosch Municipality to intensify the fight against gang violence following an alleged shooting between rival gangs near Cloetesville High School on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u200bAlthough no injuries were reported, parents say they fear for their children\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cDit raak nou regtig erg. Our children are not even safe at school anymore. They can no longer walk and play in the streets,\u201d parent and resident Jasmine Plaatjies told Daily Voice.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cOur people live in fear. And the big issue here in Cloetesville is that the gangsters are arrested and then released by the courts.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cEk kry ons polisie so jammer. They are really doing their part to make our community safer, but the justice system is failing us,\u201d Plaatjies added.<\/p>\n
\u200bAccording to community leader and activist George Herman, at least 11 people have been killed in Cloetesville in the past six weeks alone.<\/p>\n
\u200bHerman said: \u201cThe latest spate of shootings follows the killing of a prominent gang leader last month. Yesterday\u2019s shooting near the school has again highlighted the need for more law enforcement that is specifically targeted at gang violence.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cWe only saw the Anti-Gang Unit in Cloetesville once when illegal structures were removed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bWestern Cape police spokesperson Ndakwe Gwala confirmed Monday\u2019s shooting in Northend Street.<\/p>\n
\u200bGwala reported: \u201cPolice went to the scene and, on arrival, there were no injuries reported. No criminal case was registered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bMeanwhile, Stellenbosch Municipality said its law enforcement officers responded to the scene alongside police.<\/p>\n
\u200bMunicipal spokesperson Stuart Grobbelaar told Daily Voice: \u201cThe municipality takes public safety extremely seriously and continues to do everything within its legislative mandate to support SAPS and strengthen crime-fighting efforts across Stellenbosch.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bHe said the municipality had, over the years, made substantial investments in local safety and law enforcement capacity.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cThis includes the acquisition of new law enforcement vehicles and specialised vehicles, the expansion of CCTV infrastructure, the appointment of additional personnel, training and support for neighbourhood watches, regular joint patrols with SAPS and the establishment of the municipality\u2019s newly formed K9 Unit.<\/p>\n
\u200b\u201cThe municipality will continue to work closely with SAPS and other safety stakeholders and will provide all reasonable support within its mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u200bThe Western Cape Education Department confirmed the incident and said that it was community incident. Spokeperson Bronagh Hammond added that no learners were involved.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MENSE in Cloetesville have called on police and the Stellenbosch Municipality to intensify the fight against gang violence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[29075,198541,17499,1179,5383,2801,131,38467,26428],"class_list":["post-417921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-cloetesville","tag-cloetesville-high-school","tag-gang-violence","tag-police","tag-saps","tag-shootings","tag-south-africa","tag-stellenbosch","tag-stellenbosch-municipality"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/117241235967003582","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}