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30 Oct 2010

I have today been informed that the community of Hanover Park, through the community policing forum, has had very successful peace talks with rival gangs in the area.

A closed meeting was held yesterday to call a ceasefire and bring an end to the violence affecting not only residents, but also those who come into the community daily, for work purposes.

A public meeting was then held at Freedom Square, where community leaders announced that peace had been reached. Gang leaders had given the community their commitment that there would be no further violence or provocative actions, from one group to the other.

In light hereof, I would like to stress that our medium to long-term project, CeaseFire, will still be going ahead. With the aid of international facilitators, we will identify and train violence interrupters from Hanover Park, who will work in the community to avoid the kind of bloodshed we saw over the past few weeks.

My call for the return of specialised units also still stands. While it is a relief to hear of the truce that has been called in Hanover Park, this is not the only community crippled by gang violence.

I will continue my discussions with the provincial police commissioner in this regard.

Enquiries:
Melany Kühn
Cell: 078 887 7004

Source: Western Cape Provincial Government

Issued by: Western Cape Community Safety
30 Oct 2010

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