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Did Crime Intelligence know that an attack was planned in Jumpers informal settlement but failed to communicate this warning? And why was the nearby Cleveland police station so slow to respond to last week’s massacre of 12 people?

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng will demand answers to these key questions which shocked residents are asking in an area that includes shops, factories, formal housing, and informal settlements.

It appears the attack was perpetrated by a Zama Zama faction that had left Jumpers for Jeppestown and returned to murder their rivals. According to sources, Crime Intelligence picked up this threat but failed to pass it on to the local police.

Another failure was the late arrival of the Cleveland police although the station is a block away from Jumpers. The attack started around 9.10pm on Tuesday, but police only arrived at 10.30pm, long after the attackers had left.

Cleveland Station has only two patrol vans for four sectors that cover 25 square kilometres, including Cyrildene, Bruma, Kensington, Cleveland, and Denver. For the past two weeks, only one van was operating because many officers took their annual leave to avoid forfeiting it.

Five local security companies rushed to the scene within half an hour but could not go in without a police escort. The sole police vehicle was at an incident in Denver, which they said had to be attended to before going to Jumpers.

The police only entered Jumpers at 11.30pm when the station commander, a dog unit, a tactical response unit and a metro police tactical unit finally arrived.

The fact that the perpetrators felt confident to attack with guns blazing so near a police station shows how little respect it commands as a deterrent force.

According to local DA Councillor Neuren Pietersen, thieves even stole equipment from ambulances that arrived to help the victims.

I will be asking questions in the Gauteng Legislature about the failures by Crime Intelligence and the local police to respond speedily to this horrendous attack.

The DA will also push for Cleveland police station to be upgraded from a Colonel to a Brigadier station based on the high crime statistics and the large area covered. This will restore resources lost when it was downgraded in the 1990s.

The priority should be to prevent crime, which needs smart crime intelligence with enough vehicles and police officers to deter criminals from harming the public.

The DA demands that police leadership are held accountable to Catch, Convict, and Clean Up so that we have safe communities where criminals, not law-abiding people, live in fear.

Issued by Dr Jack Bloom MPL - DA Johannesburg East Constituency Head