TO PUT a stop to crime, ordinary people need to help cops and the families of thugs need to stop protecting them.
This was according to gogo Buyiswa Jack (66), a community leader in Nyanga, Cape Town, who told Daily Sun the police’s work would come to nothing if people did not help them fight crime.
She said to defeat crime, residents needed to report criminals to cops, regardless of who they were.
“Let us not sleep with heavy hearts. Let us not put ourselves in difficult positions where we have to defend a grandchild who is causing havoc in the kasi by selling drugs.
“You must stop defending the indefensible,” she said.
Gogo Buyiswa said some parents and grandparents were on medication for high blood pressure due to the stress their children and grandchildren caused them by committing crimes.
She said South Africans blamed the government and cops for crime being out of control but the only way to stop it was for everyone to get involved in the fight against it.
“The government is not able to put a cop shop on each and every street corner.
“Crime can only be fought by us. Let the fight start in our own homes. Let us be the cops ourselves,” she said.
Gogo Buyiswa said grandparents were not enjoying their pension money as they had to take their grandchildren to school while the parents spent their grant money on booze.
“As the elderly, we must stand up against this. It amounts to abuse and we must not allow this to continue,” she said.
Councillor Sandile Martin agreed that the people of Nyanga had to stand together to fight crime.
“We all know who does crime in our areas but we protect them.
“It’s high time that residents started working with the cops and providing information to them,” said Martin.
Nyanga community police forum secretary Dumisani Qwebe said they and they police could not win the fight against crime on their own.
