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South African president vows to make crime-stricken communities safe

Xinhua, February 14, 2017 Adjust font size:

The South African government will do everything to restore peace and safety in crime-stricken communities, President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday.

Zuma made the pledge during a visit to Nyanga, a Cape Town community plagued by drugs, murder, carjacking and other human contact crimes.

Zuma undertook the visit as part of the Presidential Siyahlola Monitoring Programme to gain a first-hand account of work that is being done to fight crime in the area.

The visit came after Statistics South Africa announced that South Africans were feeling unsafe and that 41.7 percent of households believed crime had increased in their areas in the last three years compared to 31.2 percent in 2010.

Zuma interacted with police officials and members of the public at the Nyanga Police Station to obtain their views on what can be done to bring about an end to crime and to encourage stronger partnerships in the fight against crime.

Zuma committed the government to assist the police station and ensure that there's significant coordination in the criminal justice system to increase the level of prosecution as there were complains that criminals do not get prosecuted.

"We are concerned with regard to the coordination within the criminal justice system, there should high levels of prosecution because we cannot co-exist with criminals because they undermine the rights of our citizens. We have encouraged the police to continue working hard to fight drug abuse in this area,"Zuma said.

Nyanga Police Station Commissioner, Brigadier Vuyisile Ncata briefed Zuma on a number of crime awareness projects aimed at addressing root causes and contributors of crime as well as initiatives to mitigate crimes directed at vulnerable groups.

"The police station is now working very well with the Community Policing Forum in fighting crime and the partnership with community is improving but more still needs to be done to improve the situation," Ncata said.

The police station has also undertaken some positive social crime prevention programmes in the past year.

In a collaboration between the South African Police Service and the Department of Basic Education, which entails the linking of affected school to local police stations, the police station's Social Crime Prevention officers liaise with schools to provide crime orientated programmes, visits and, where required, the necessary searches to be conducted.

"The visit was very successful and we received a report of the Station Commissioner and we will engage the departments in the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster to attend to challenges faced by the police station," said Zuma. Endit