Fourteen shootings. Nine people killed. Five people wounded. One township.
Still not shocked?
Well consider this: these numbers — representing people, lives lost — were recorded over just 48 hours in Nelson Mandela Bay’s Walmer Township, between Thursday and Saturday.
It is the latest spate of killings in the township that appear to continue unabated.
Instead, it would seem, these killings are only intensifying.
The result? A community living in fear and mistrust.
One resident, a frightened woman who heard the gunshots during the latest incident, said she was too scared to discuss the violence with anyone and would move elsewhere if the opportunity arose.
The Walmer Township killings have raged for months.
In June, Siphiwo Nkomo, 58, lost his son, Sinethemba Delihlazo, 27, to such violence.
He was shot dead while walking home.
Nkomo, a member of the community policing forum at the time of his son’s death, said some members had relinquished their roles as they feared for their lives.
“It is painful because no-one knows what is happening,” he said.
“People are dying and no-one knows the motive behind this cruelty.”
The rapid rise in gun-related deaths in the community led to local police calling in the provincial organised crime investigation unit earlier in 2021.
Nkomo said he believed the rise in crime was linked to the closure of the Fountain satellite police station in Walmer Township in 2017.
Others however, commenting on social media, said the murders were the community’s attempt to clean up their suburb, rid it of criminals.
Whatever the motive, this cannot continue.
While we understand residents’ frustration about the slow pace of the investigation, they must allow officials to do their work — if this is indeed mob justice — and bring the guilty parties to book.
If there is some other motive, we implore the police — whoever and whatever resources it takes — to get to the bottom of these killings urgently.
We understand that for prosecutions to proceed and be successful, thorough investigations need to be conducted and this is not always a speedy process.
But officials can do more to assure residents that they are doing everything in their power to arrest not only criminals but also this ongoing onslaught on an entire community.
HeraldLIVE