Africa-Press – South-Africa. As Police Minister Bheki Cele embarked on a whirlwind tour of areas in Cape Town beset by violence, a man was shot in broad daylight just 300 metres away from where he was addressing angry residents in Manenberg.
Around three gunshots were heard and residents rushed to assist the man. Police cordoned off the area.
Cele was on a visit to Khayelitsha and Manenberg on Thursday, but residents described it as a “show” and political grandstanding. They said that, as soon as he had left, nothing would happen.
Cele visited Khayelitsha in New Monwabisi Park, where five people were killed on Monday morning.
The chairperson of the South African National Civic Organisation in Khayelitsha, Sinetemba Mtini, said: “Let’s be real. Nothing will happen after the minister leaves here. There will be no change, and we will continue to let people be killed.”
Mtini described Cele’s visit to Khayelitsha as a “grand show”.
“This is a show for him, and we have tried our best to engage with police to explain our challenges of having no police visibility; nothing has happened,” he said.
Khayelitsha murders: Minister Bheki Cele vows to hunt down gunmen who killed 5 people
In Manenberg, Cele engaged with community members.
Several people have recently been killed in the area in gang-related conflict.
Cele promised residents in Heideveld Street that “life will improve for them”.
Beverley Martin, a resident in Betsy Court, said the area was grappling with high levels of gang-related crime and called for more police visibility.
‘Mommy Mommy!’: Woman hides under her bed as gunshots ring out in Manenberg gang war
“They have failed us. How must we sleep like this? Our children can’t play in the street. At 08:00 in the morning, the gangsters start shooting. Every day, we, as women, are in danger, anything can happen to us – and Cele will just say ‘she did a lot in the community’. This is unacceptable,” she said.
News24 asked Cele for his response to residents’ claim that nothing tangible had been done.
“Which people feel like that? If the residents can tell me that, they must tell me. I visited them, it’s not you who visited them.
“We are sending extra police forces into Khayelitsha and [them] saying we just come for a show, they should have told me, and I would have responded to them. But no one has told me we are wasting time,” an irritated Cele said.
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