Africa-Press – South-Africa. Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant General Elias Mawela has deployed the police’s Anti-Gang Unit and officers from several other units in Westbury, Johannesburg, amid rising levels of violence and shootings in the area.
The additional officers are from the provincial and district Crime Intelligence units, Public Order Police, Technical Response Team, K9 Unit and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department.
“These extra forces have been deployed on a 24-hour basis to augment the operations that were already in place to deal with gangsterism in the Johannesburg district,” police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Sello said.
Westbury has been rocked by widespread shootings and violence in recent weeks.
A teenager was shot and wounded on Monday morning, just a day after several others were reportedly wounded in at least two other shooting incidents. The 18-year-old was rushed to hospital.
Since Friday night, 13 people have been shot in at least six incidents, according to the authorities and residents. Two of the victims died.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Gauteng legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Community Safety called for the situation in Westbury to be “nipped before more lives are lost”.
“The community of Westbury should no longer live in fear but enjoy their constitutional right to feel safe and secure in their neighbourhood,” committee chairperson Bandile Masuku said.
Masuku said earlier in February, the committee called on Mawela to improve policing in Westbury, Eldorado Park and surrounding areas.
“In response, he (Mawela) assured the committee of the Gauteng Anti-Gang Unit’s full-time deployment in Westbury to get a handle on widespread violence.
“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,” Masuku said.
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