KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli has called on Umlazi residents to rise up and restore safety by working with community safety structures and police.

As part of a continued series of crime fighting strategies throughout the province, the Premier and his officials held an imbizo at Glebelands Hostel in the outskirts of Umlazi township, south of Durban on Tuesday. The hostel, which is believed to be populated by close to 20,000 people has seen blood shed in a war between two groups who were fighting for control of allocating beds. This pushed the township’s crime statistics high as the hostel falls under the Umlazi police station.

Speaking at the gathering, Ntuli urged the residents to call meetings in the respective sections of the township to discuss crime and come up with solutions. He urged them to present those solutions to the safety structures and police. He said he decided to come and hold imbizo in the township after receiving information that carjackings and murders were increasing.

“Police alone will not end crime in your areas, however, working with you this is possible because criminals are part of the society and are known by the members of the community. I call on you to rise and fight crime in your areas. You can do so by assisting community safety structures to patrol the passages and corners during the night and early morning when criminals take advantage of the darkness,” said Ntuli.

He further expressed his concern that forms of extortion still persist in the township and vowed to deal with it. He said as much as he supports the call by safety structures to also get into schools and search pupils, it must be done in a professional manner because some will take advantage and demand compensation from schools and parents, adding that this would be another form of extortion.

Ntuli also warned taxi associations who are preventing private car owners from traveling with other people in their vehicles. He said this was another form of extortion because the taxi marshals are demanding cash for the release of the private cars or have them impounded.

He vowed that his government will not tolerate such acts, including the attack of e-hailing drivers, saying that the Transport MEC Siboniso Duma was currently monitoring the situation between taxis and the e-hailing services as well as following up to letters circulated to schools where teachers have been threatened by taxi associations to stop giving lifts to pupils of face their anger.

Last week, Duma issued a warning to the Klipriver taxi association in Ladysmith after a letter, purportedly coming from the association  was circulated on social media platforms warning teachers about giving lifts to pupils.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za

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