MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Human Rights means not having to live in fear

By

Dear MyPE

We have made great progress with regard to human rights in South Africa today. We have a new constitution and a new democracy. Under apartheid communities lived in fear because they had no human rights. The Sharpville and Langa massacres are a stark reminder of this.

Today communities are living with another kind of fear: that is the fear of the criminal element. People are not free when they have to live in a state of anxiety, insecurity, anger and frustration because of daily threats.

The Nelson Mandela Metropole features more of the ten top worst police stations (stats and figures from Safety MEC Weziwe Tikana) in the province for dangerous crimes than any other municipality. It is the crime capital of the Eastern Cape. The two worst police stations in the province for high crime are Kwazakhele and New Brighton.

In New Brighton in the 2013/14 financial year, 103 people were murdered, Kwazakhele 83 murdered and Bethesdorp 69 murdered. The number one station for hijacking in the province is Kwazakhele, followed by New Brighton and Motherwell.

The DA believes in safe communities. These are communities where children can play freely in the street, where people can sleep comfortably without the activation of alarm systems and electric fences, where people can walk from their homes to a taxi rank without the fear of having their phone and bag snatched and where women can walk down the street at any time without feeling physically or sexually vulnerable.

Under a DA government our communities would be safer, particularly here in the Nelson Mandela Metro. We would usher in a metropolitan police service, ensure high visibility policing and rapid response to emergency calls. We would also bring back specialised units to eradicate gangsterism and drugs from our streets.

Real freedom is the right to live in safety and security. That freedom is under threat today, and we must stand together to fight for it. The struggle is not over.

Regard

Bobby Stevenson

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Port Elizabethan

This author is a 'catch-all' for occasional articles and letters written to MyPE. The Author of each article can be found in the signature at the bottom of each individual article.