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THE South African Communist Party (SACP) in the OR Tambo District has called on police top brass in the province to come up with extra-ordinary measures to deal with serious and violent crimes in Lusikisiki.
The organisation have given the Eastern Cape Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nomthetheleli Mene, 14 days to respond to the memorandum of demands handed over to OR Tambo District Commissioner, Major-General Pumzile Cetyana, during a march organised by the SACP to Lusikisiki Police Station.
The march took place on March 19.
Among the demands made by the SACP during this march are the deployment of more police officers to the town of Lusikisiki, expediting DNA results by the provincial SAPS laboratory to speedily execute rape cases, and the establishment of a police task team to deal with ongoing taxi violence between Lusikisiki and Port St Johns.
The SACP claimed the unprecedented acts of crime in Lusikisiki had led to an increase in child-headed households, and people abandoning their homes fearing for their lives, due to the high rate of crimes, including murder, rape, armed robbery, extortion and vehicle hijacking.
The recent third-quarter crime statistics for the 2023/2024 financial year placed the Lusikisiki Police Station in fourth place nationally in reported rape cases.
The same police stations also featured in the top 30 nationally, for the high number of reported murder cases for the same period.
“The South African Community Party memorandum handed over to SAPS also demands regular search operations to be conducted by police, with the Department of Home Affairs immigration officials, to affirm the legality of business operations and apprehend those who contravene the law. We also want more police officers comprising all police units to be deployed to enforce law and order within the OR Tambo District jurisdiction, as well as police and other departments in the security cluster to conduct efficient policing in our coastline,” said SACP OR Tambo District secretary, Mvuzo Mxenge.
OR Tambo District police spokesperson, Captain Welile Matyolo, confirmed knowledge of the memorandum of demands handed to Cetyana by the SACP, adding that police management had responded to the demands contained in the memorandum. However, the SACP district secretary, Mvuzo Mxenge, said that the organisation was yet to receive a response from SAPS when contacted for comment, on Sunday April 7. Attempts to get an update at the time of going to print on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
