Police top brass: Diepsloot situation ‘not out of control’
Police Minister Bheki Cele has refuted claims that a lack of policing led to the killing of Elvis Nyathi in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg.
Nyathi was set alight by an angry mob searching for illegal foreign nationals in the community on Wednesday night.
He visited the area again on Thursday in a bid to quell tensions between community members and foreign nationals.
The community has accused undocumented foreign nationals of being behind a spate of violent crimes, including rape and murder.
At least four South Africans were killed in the community at the weekend.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Cele said the fight against crime in the area is made more difficult due to the narrow streets and dense population.
“The shortcomings of this area are the life of this area itself. As the police, we have always raised issues that we are suffering from environmental design, that’s one area for the police that take some time for them to respond.
"We raised the issue with Premier David Makhura yesterday and I am told all the lights are also not working, but we want to believe that in spite of what happened here the situation will improve."
National commissioner Fannie Masemola has denied claims that the situation is out of control.
“We delivered about 16 vehicles in the area and there are about 120 police deployed in the area. All the commitments we made yesterday have been delivered. There are police in the area and we have delivered those vehicles.
"There is no situation out of control. The fact that there is someone who died doesn’t mean that the situation is out of control, we are still managing the situation, it is a manageable situation,” he said.
Police arrested 24 people overnight, although nobody is in custody for Nyathi’s murder.
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