Nelson Mandela Bay residents can hardly be blamed these days for not wanting to set foot outside our homes. In fact, we are not even safe at home.
Many people have become nervous wrecks who live in fear of becoming statistics thanks to the reign of terror being waged by criminals in our beloved Bay.
Earlier in March, Eastern Cape police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nomthetheleli Mene released the crime statistics for the third quarter of the police’s 2023/2024 financial year.
Eight police stations in the Bay were ranked in the top 30 in the province for murder, with an average of at least three murders a day occurring in the communities they serve.
During the same period, 213 kidnappings were recorded in the Eastern Cape, with 84 reported in the Bay.
Just this week, we read about a particularly heart-wrenching murder, followed by a disturbing kidnapping that would have added to the fears of many Bay residents.
Alton Perry, a young man with Down syndrome, died after a stray bullet hit him in the head in Gqeberha’s northern areas on Monday.
The 20-year-old had been sitting on a porch overlooking his mother’s house when he was caught in the crossfire between two rival gangs.
Two days later, the metro was rocked by the kidnapping of a Kariega mother of two.
Sonam Gajjar, the wife of a prominent businessman, was snatched from her vehicle outside her home on Wednesday. She was still missing by the time of publication.
Gajjar’s kidnapping took place 13 days after another Bay resident, Neal Ah-Tow, was abducted from outside his Sidwell business. His whereabouts remain unknown.
At least five businesspeople are known to have been kidnapped in the metro since late January. The spate of kidnappings for ransom has prompted the police to launch a joint operational centre to bring the perpetrators to book.
But until the initiative starts to yield results, and some sense of safety returns to the Bay, residents will constantly be looking over their shoulders, wondering whether they will be next.
This is no way to live.
We have all become victims of crime — directly or indirectly — because people living in high-crime areas often feel trapped in a cycle of violence and despair.
The personal, emotional and physical impact aside, the direct costs of crime include property damage, medical expenses and legal fees, all placing a significant strain on local resources.
Drastic and urgent intervention is needed.
Failing that, residents, fed up with being held hostage by criminals, might resort to anarchical methods to deal with crime, such as the mob justice attacks that have already occasionally taken place.
HeraldLIVE