Eldorado Park community demands integrated approach to drugs, crime crisis
Community members have accused Eldorado Park police of being captured by criminals, claiming that witnesses and victims of crime are afraid to come forward out of fear of being targeted by criminals who terrorise the community.
Susan Baadjies’ son was shot eight times in January while sitting in his car. She has accused the local police of incompetence, adding that she only began seeing progress in the case after putting pressure on the investigating officer by approaching the district office.
“It wasn’t a good scene, gunshots in his face. For what? He wasn’t a drug dealer. He was a married man with two kids.” The day of his shooting there wasn’t one cop at the scene. His case was delegated to an officer that wasn’t even on duty.”
The community has called for an integrated approach to the social ills that continue to plague that community; these include a lack of basic services, drug and alcohol abuse, violent crimes and high incidents of rape.
Anti-drug activist and spokesperson for the ‘Yes Eldos Again’ movement Dereleen James says they have been faced with incidents of minors engaging in sexual activity due to the poor living arrangements in their homes.
“What are we showing our children by not providing houses? That is our reality here. An integrated approach. We are saying that when you come to us don’t just say you are going to do, we want to see that budget,” an emotional James said.
The activist says families of up to six people share a two-room home, and children as young as nine have sexual intercourse with each other because they are exposed to sexual activities in the home due to lack of space.
She says teenagers are shot and killed or get hooked on drugs before they have had the opportunity to realise their dreams of furthering their studies.
She blames this on the lack of recreational facilities.
VIDEO: “What should we say when a 9y/o is sleeping with all the children in the street,penetrates them,&the mothers want to fight each other. Because they see what happens in the bed [they share with their parents due to lack of adequate housing]”- Dereleen James #EldoradoPark pic.twitter.com/epUU6UaozW
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) October 10, 2022
Meanwhile, during his visit to the Eldorado Park police station on Monday, Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero promised to give the community weekly updates on efforts to address their grievances.
“We will up the game in as far as safety matters are concerned. So it will be the short term and the roads matter. So we will sit, look at the basket of priorities and then see what can be prioritised on the basis of the resources that we have,” he said.
The mayor met with community leaders and introduced 10 new MMC that had been sworn in at the Johannesburg Council earlier in the day.
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