South Africa has put together a special team of police detectives to investigate the killing of some 11 people in Cape Town’s Philippi.
Last Friday night, police officers in Cape Town responded to scenes at the Marikana informal settlement where four people were shot dead inside a tavern, according to News24.
Three others were also killed inside a shack nearby, one outside the shack and two others were found lying dead between the shacks in the area. One other person died later in hospital.
Western Cape police spokesperson FC van Wyk told News24 that there were no new developments to report concerning arrests for the shootings on Friday night.
“Currently, it is very calm in [the] Marikana [informal settlement]. Our members are still in the area monitoring the situation.”
On Saturday residents in the community stormed the Philippi East police station to demand that action be taken over the killings.
The Philippi community has seen increase in crime rate in recent times with community leaders reported to have raised their concerns about crime in the area in meetings with police commanders.
We are aware of the situation in Phillipi, Cape Town. The police will act and work hard in finding the perpetrators. pic.twitter.com/wRUaKK12cK
— RSA Police Minister (@MbalulaFikile) September 30, 2017
Police officials said although no arrests have been made so far over the killings, investigations are ongoing.
South Africa’s Statistics institution (StatsSA) last week released its latest victims of crime survey which revealed that sexual offences, including rape, increased by 117% over the past 12 months.
A total of 50 883 people reported being a victim of a sexual offence, of which 31 817 were women, according to the survey which captured 30 000 households across all nine provinces.
Source: Africafeeds.com
