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- Gqeberha residents are under siege from criminals and gangs.
- Community activists have lamented the rampant crime in Nelson Mandela Bay townships and Northern Areas, with one challenging Police Minister Bheki Cele to spend a day in the metro without VIP protection.
- In the series On The Road, News24 is traversing the country to gauge South Africans' feelings ahead of the elections.
Daku Road in KwaZakhele is buzzing with its usual activity, as hawkers, taxi drivers and informal taxi drivers go about their business.
Residents also come and go, trading with vendors in nearby container shops and markets.
But be warned, a short walk of no more than 500m could see you getting robbed and possibly even killed for your belongings in broad daylight. And if you don't get robbed while walking, the thieves set upon you while you catch a ride in a "jikezela" - an informal taxi.
The rampant crime in Nelson Mandela Bay townships has prompted one Zwide-based community activist, Pamela Mabini, to challenge Police Minister Bheki Cele to ditch his VIP protectors for a day and walk in the metro's townships. Mabini said she was keen to see if the minister would return unharmed or if he would suffer the fate of many local residents who had either been robbed or killed for their belongings.
Meanwhile, in the metro's Northern Areas, many families are battling to untangle their teenagers from gangs, Helenvale activist Sharlene Steyn told the News24 On The Road team. The two women are among people doing their bit to break the cycle of crime in Nelson Mandela Bay, but both feel there is no end to their socioeconomic plights.
Steyn said the situation was dire, with at least 100 known gangs operating in the Northern Areas.
She said:
Steyn says the Northern Areas streets fall silent when they know there'll be a shootout.
Both Mabini and Steyn work with other residents in their community activism, fighting to end killings and violent crime.
Mabini said crime had changed the face of the townships she knew growing up.
"[Gqeberha] was a nice and friendly city where we used to walk freely at night. As a girl that was born in the township, we grew up here and we knew about gangsters and what they were hustling for; it was not like now, when thugs are killing each other for no apparent reason and we are living in fear.
She added:
Mabini accused the Nelson Mandela Bay leadership of ignoring the lived reality of residents and believed the high crime rate in the metro to be a reflection of the instability within its council.
"I don't even know the mayor's name and surname; I've heard about a Van Niekerk guy.
"The way I see it, the council is doing a Mickey Mouse job there, changing all the time," she said, before questioning: "How are they going to improve services if they keep on doing that?"
From petty crime to robberies, hijackings and kidnappings, Gqeberha residents are under siege and gangsters profit by demanding protection fees.
Schools, clinics and emergency services vehicles report being terrorised by criminal elements, as do government projects, many of which have suffered protracted stoppages.
READ | ON THE ROAD: 'Why would I vote when I'm hungry?' asks informal businessman at East London's 'Stoep'
Meanwhile, crime statistics for the period between October and December 2023 show that three police stations in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality made the list of the 30 police stations in South Africa where the highest number of murders were reported.
New Brighton Police Station came in 15th place, with 46 murders reported. This was still an improvement from the 62 murders that were reported at the station during the same period in the previous year.
In the period from July to September 2023, 37 murders were reported at the station.
Closely behind was the Motherwell Police Station at 17th place with 42 murders between October and December 2023, while KwaZakhele Police Station was in 20th place.
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The metro has also experienced several mass shootings in the recent past.
In July 2023, six people were killed at a popular hangout in KwaNobuhle. According to a News24 report, gunmen randomly opened fire late at night during load shedding.
In October, four people were killed in the Northern Areas in just 24 hours. All four victims had gunshot wounds and were found lying on the side of a road.
In November, Gqeberha police discovered four bodies in the outbuilding of a house in KwaDwesi. Each of the victims had been shot.
In the lead-up to the ANC's Eastern Cape conference in 2022, Gqeberha saw a spike in political violence; while several business owners were killed in 2019 in a string of murders that were allegedly linked to a multimillion-rand drain cleaning deal.
Gqeberha's state of affairs has drawn international infamy, with the Mexican Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice ranking the city as the most dangerous in South Africa, above Cape Town and Durban.
A report by the organisation ranks Nelson Mandela Bay 9th out of the 50 most violent cities in the world, with 78.33 murders per 100 000 people in 2023.
This ranking doesn't surprise Mabini.
"I expected that. Every day, people are being killed, people are being shot and killed, and it's senseless killings that you don't understand," she said.
She added that hiring hitmen was another rising trend in Gqeberha.
"I'm not surprised by how things have changed; it's no longer nice. We don't feel safe everywhere: When you're driving, when you're walking, when you are at home, it's no longer safe even when you are out for fun," Mabini said, adding that many were now avoiding social gatherings.
"People will randomly kill people because they are having fun for no apparent reason."
