A festive event last night was peppered with words of caution and encouragement.
The Mitchell’s Plain Community Policing Forum (CPF) and their religious fraternity partners held a carols by candlelight karaoke sing-along on Thursday 11 December at Cedar High School Hall.
Mitchell’s Plain police station commander Brig. Brian Muller told the assembly to “embrace the spirit of the season”.
Speaking on his behalf in his absence, Capt. Ian Williams said: “I called the station commander and asked him what he wanted to say to you tonight because he could not be here and he said: ‘I wish for the community of Mitchell’s Plain just to embrace the spirit of the season’.
“For me that means we should seek to be reunited and to come together to engage and seek common ground,” he said.
He added that during this holiday period, police work harder than ever.
“We do more patrols. There are more road blocks and beach patrols,” he said, adding that there was usually an exponential increase in crime during this period.
He encouraged the community to change that tide by “extending the hand of forgiveness and hope”.
“Then others will follow suit,” he said.
Silent night, sombre night
CPF chair Norman Janjies echoed his words but also added a note of caution.
“We have a common enemy and that is crime and gangsterism and drugs,” he said.
Janjies said that between April and September there had been 90 murders in Mitchells Plain.
“Most recent was the mass murder,” he said, referring to the incident where three people were killed, including a nine-year-old boy, when armed men entered the house where they were and shot them.
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“These people were killed in their home,” Janties said. “That house, where the murders took place, they were selling drugs from there, they were doing drugs in there, and they are still selling drugs from there. Two gangs are selling drugs from different houses in that street and they were killed because of a fight for the market in that area.”
Janjies encouraged residents to report crime and to identify corrupt officers.
“Don’t talk amongst each other, tell the police,” he said. “There’s a lot of bad apples in the police. Most of them are law abiding but the police can’t act if they don’t know. So it’s our responsibility to act and to tell the police,” Janjies said.
He added that there were only two big gangs that were currently vying for “total control of Mitchells Plain”.
Despite the sombre note, residents sang carols and lit candles in remembrance of those who had lost their lives this year.
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