‘Fighting the evil drugs and gangsterism'

05 April 2014

Note to Editors: This is an extract of a speech delivered by Patricia De Lille in Reiger Park, Ekurhuleni Municipality today.

Mmusi Maimane and I have come to Reiger Park to stand shoulder to shoulder with you. 

We stand with this community in the fight against drugs and crime. 

It is time to say NO to drugs and gangsterism! 

I don't need to tell the residents of Reiger Park that drugs and gangsterism destroy lives, families and communities, like few other social evils do. 

Members of the rival Sour Boyz and Dogan gangs have maimed and killed innocent residents in an orgy of violence. 

These thugs do not represent us, nor do they represent our young people. 

We must fight back against gangs, drug barons and the thugs who have made your lives a misery for years. And we must fight back hard. 

The police have seemed powerless to stop the mayhem...suffocated by bureaucracy...and intimidated by gang leaders. No preventative strategy appears to be in place.  

Most of us know or love someone whose life has been ruined by drugs. We also know that most people who go down that path find it hard to turn their lives around.

As a mother and a community leader, I have seen the devastating effects many times; too many times for one lifetime. 

The daily fear of most South Africans is crime. Knife crime is up, gangster attacks are up, and there is violence and disorder on too many of our streets. It is a major criminal disease that has infected neighbourhoods across the country. 

But we can only tackle crime if we tackle family breakdown, if we tackle drug addiction, and if we mend broken lives.

Some people might say that my zero tolerance of drugs is illiberal...let them! 

There is nothing more illiberal than what drugs and gangsterism are doing to individuals and communities.  

Let them go with the parents and see the corpses of our young people stacked up in mortuaries. 

Drugs and gangster-ism destroys hope, dignity and opportunity. It is time for an all-out war on gangs and gang culture. Stamping out these gangsters and drug dealers must be a new national priority.

It is time to say NO to drugs and gangsterism!

And it is not enough to propose tough criminal sentences on gangsters who deal in drugs. 

On top of that, we also have to be as tough on the causes of crime as we are on the crimes themselves. The last front in the fight is punishment. But by then it is too late for many.   

To reduce crime and violence in South Africa we have to deal with the root causes of drug addiction and abuse. The challenge begins in our families, with parents talking to their children openly. It embraces our mosques, churches and synagogues, our elected representatives, our youth groups and our schools. Our kids have got to know that it is not cool to use drugs. 

And the government must play its role. Government cannot legislate to change hearts and minds. But nor can it be a bystander. 

We have had the same problem with drugs and gangster-ism in Cape Town.

Gang membership of a gang in the townships across the Cape Flats is a feature of many lives.

So what we have been doing in the City of Cape Town?

Tackling gang violence must involve a whole of government and what Helen Zille calls a ‘whole of society' approach.

First, a dedicated Gang Unit has been established under the Cape Town Metro Police.

These elite police officers were handpicked to solely focus on combating drug dealing and gangsterism on the Cape Flats. 

What do they do?

Well, they do a number of things...

They identify gangs and drug hot spots... gather intelligence on the gangs and drug dealers...co-ordinate integrated search warrants...increase the number of road-blocks aimed at crippling gangs and drug networks...take part in local drug action committees...

The operational focus of the unit includes observing criminal activities of known premises associated with gang activity. These activities include illegal narcotics, illegal arms and ammunition, prostitution, and alcohol. They also share information with other law enforcement agencies...

And we also look deeply at the historical causes. Our security fight back must be matched by a social fight back.

The races-based re-design of our cities during Apartheid created disadvantage communities in which crime was able to flourish. 

So we have implemented the Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading programme. 

The idea behind it is that safe and integrated communities can be built through infrastructure projects and strengthened with the provision of access to public facilities and services.

The introduction of the Ceasefire programme in Hanover Park has led to a significant reduction in gang violence and will now be extended to Manenberg. 

We are piloting the School Resource Officer programme. Ten officers were appointed to seven schools identified as pilot sites in 2012. This programme was expanded last September with the addition of 60 more officers in response to gang violence at more schools.

And we have tough, no-nonsense policing. What really matters in this fight back is the amount of time that the law enforcement agents spend on the streets.  

We have much more to do. But we have made a good start. We will see this through to the end. The war on drugs and gangsterism can and must be won. 

Issued by the DA, April 6 2014

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