Following the murder of an innocent father, residents who marched to Steenberg SAPS on Monday say they want coloureds to replace the black officers at the cop shop.
Protester Faye Ali of the 7945 Action Group from Lavender Hill says that a language barrier hinders the investigation into cases at the precinct.
“A lot of people come to us as leaders and tell us that when they go to the police station and they speak to the officers, they don’t understand them, you must understand that a lot of the community members only speak Afrikaans,” she says.
“And when they do speak English, it seems to be very bad broken English, so they can never put their point across especially with gender-based violence victims.”
She says black officers who work in coloured communities should at least learn the taal.
“Our language is very distinct and we have slang and sometimes the officers will use very big words our people don’t understand.”
Addressing cops outside the station over a loudhailer, Ali shouted: “Fire the dead weight, employ new people, employ coloured people, all you see is black people on the road and I’m not being racist but there is a need in our communities.”
March organiser Yaaseen Staggie says their main concern is that it appears the police are focused on everything other than violent crime.
“The security of the community lies with the police station, which is under-resourced, inadequate and incompetent to do the job they are supposed to do.
“SAPS sends fleets of vans to go and evict people. We want that same energy when they are supposed to protect us.”
On Saturday at 5pm, Kienan Damons, 29, was cutting his hair in his bathroom when he was stabbed in the chest in Roos Court, Lavender Hill. It was his birthday.
The two male suspects, who were looking for some boys, fled the scene and are yet to be arrested.