Phillips was one of over 100 people who joined an anti-gang and drug march in Mitchells Plain on Sunday 7 September.

The march was held under the banner of People against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD) G-Force, a splinter group of PAGAD.

Watched over by a large police contingent, including public order police and metro cops, the protesters marched through Beacon Valley and Eastridge, suburbs where drug houses are alleged to be concentrated in Mitchells Plain.

Protesters shouted Arabic verses and slogans. They also chanted: “One merchant, one bullet; one gangster, one bullet”, and “death” to the Fancy Boys and Americans, two prominent gangs.

Members of the EFF and the PA supported the march.

Phillips said there was a lack of “political will” to deal with the issue. She also blamed absent fathers, poverty and unemployment. She said gangsters have become role models. Youngsters see flashy cars, money and nice clothing and aspire to become gangsters, she said.

Later on Sunday, three men were shot and killed in Tafelsig, the neighbouring suburb. That the killings were “gang-related has not been ruled out”, said a SAPS statement.

Last week, a person was killed and five were wounded in Beacon Valley. In July, gang violence left five people dead in Mitchells Plain. From April to August, SAPS Western Cape seized 800 illegal firearms and 679 suspects were arrested for murder, mostly gang-related.

Zainoneesa Rashid, PAGAD G-Force secretary, said the police were failing and “we need to take back our streets”.

During the march, GroundUp observed police forcing onlookers indoors. They also shut all side roads.

Before the march started, the police ordered people marching to remove their masks. Rashid said that this was dangerous as “some of these people are being targeted by gangsters”.

Rashid said that they are calling on religious leaders to join the fight against gangsterism.

Written by Ashraf Hendricks for GroundUp and republished with permission. The original article can be found here.

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The app was unveiled at the school on 27 November 2023, with a training workshop to help Portland Block H Neighbourhood Watch members with installing the app, as well as registration and authentication processes.

BlockWatch leverages predictive analytics to enhances the user community’s awareness and decision-making by accurately predicting future locations of crime and violent incidents on a weekly basis.

The technology allows users to record incidents, including the location and timestamp for all observations made during patrols.

Other project collaborators include the Western Cape Government Departments of Health and Wellness, and Police Oversight and Community Safety.

The CSIR in its 2023/24 annual report said the pilot project will help assess the app’s suitability for determining the spatial patterns of crime and violence in the area and for decision-making in addressing sporadic flare-ups of incidents in highly volatile communities.

CSIR CEO Dr Thulani Dlamini said BlockWatch uses artificial intelligence to predict crime and allow law enforcement officers to be proactive rather than reactive. “The best solution we can have as a country is to prevent crime rather than intervening after a crime has been committed.”

He said BlockWatch will help law enforcement as well as neighbourhood watches to get ahead of potential crime hotspots in the country. After rolling out in Mitchells Plain, the CSIR hopes to scale up to other parts of the country.

BlockWatch is one of numerous CSIR initiatives to provide safety and security solutions under the Defence and Security cluster, which delivers integrated security solutions for private, public and civil sectors, and technology innovation to foster a robust local defence and security industry.

Civil security research and development offers command and control capabilities for crowd management; sensor systems for homes, businesses and critical infrastructure that enable authorities to identify and rapidly react to criminal activities; integrated security solutions for infrastructure security; and security solutions for the cash-in-transit industry, amongst others.

A notably successful CSIR developed project is its Meerkat wide-area surveillance system, developed to detect and intercept rhino poachers in the Kruger National Park – before they attack. The system uses a land surveillance radar plus radar-designated, long-range cameras with laser illumination for night operations. The radar detects and localises a moving target, and the cameras confirm detections as well as distinguishing between humans and animals. All components are locally sourced and supported.

The sensor system is self-sufficient and can be used continuously for months at a time at unprepared and unattended sites. This allows maximum continuous coverage over poaching ingress routes. The system is quickly moved by pick-up truck and/or helicopter. The system can be used in any large area requiring perimeter protection – including border safeguarding, industrial plant security and farm security. Its success was proven in the Kruger National Park, where it has been in operational use since 2017.

The CSIR developed the cameras for the Meerkat, including the Cyclone and Otus. Tyto is a lighter, smaller and cheaper version of Otus. Tyto is able to operate during the day or at night with enhanced twilight performance. It has a high sensitivity monochrome main sensor and thermal detection sensor. Range is around 5 km, compared to approximately 1 0km for Otus. RINO is a smaller version of Otus with similar range capability – it is far lighter and easier to transport. In addition to camera upgrades, Meerkat may in future be fitted with a new Ground-based Surveillance and Classification Radar (GSCR) developed by the CSIR with support from the Department of Science and Innovation.

Another example of a CSIR security solution is a stock theft application. The Department of Correctional Services discovered livestock losses of up to R250 000 per month from a farming project in the Eastern Cape so CSIR systems engineers rapidly responded with a risk assessment and threat analysis and developed a security operational concept. To speed up development, the CSIR worked with a local manufacturer of a perimeter intrusion monitoring system as part of the overall solution. The system detects movement through radar and video capabilities, using day and night cameras. After the first attempted intrusion was detected and thwarted, the theft ended.

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Bullet Proof Park, described as the only play area fully encased in bulletproof glass, will protect children from stray bullets.

“After discussing with activists and community members, Beacon Valley in Mitchells Plain has been earmarked as an area in which to build the park. This is an area that has reported numerous deaths of children caught in crossfire,” said Gun Free SA researcher Claire Taylor.

Taylor told ProtectionWeb that the design of the park was complete and was currently in the costing phase. “Initial figures are high though for a project of this undertaking and scope. The cost to build the park would come from communities and fundraising but unfortunately, these communities already pay a high toll from gun violence,” she said.

Although Gun Free SA has invested substantial time and resources into developing a proposal for the park, the organisation “wants to be clear in that we hope a park like this never has to be built.”

 “In fact, we would go as far as encouraging the public and the government to help us not build this Bulletproof Park by supporting the introduction and enforcement of stricter gun laws, and efforts to trace and destroy all stolen and misplaced guns to permanently remove them from circulation,” said Taylor.

According to the latest annual crime stats, homicides in Mitchells Plain have increased by 24% between the 2021/2 and 2022/3 periods.

“Of the 404 gang-related deaths in the Western Cape between April-September 2023, at least 74 were bystanders caught in crossfire. All too often bystanders are children caught in the crossfire simply for playing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Research shows that children are disproportionately affected by stray bullets fired into the air or at missed targets.

“Over 20 years, nearly half of the children under 12 admitted to Cape Town’s Red Cross Children’s Hospital were victims of crossfire. Bulletproof Park is an outrageous solution to an outrageous problem,” said Taylor.

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