One of Cape Town's most dangerous townships, Brown's Farm, has taken the first steps to installing CCTV cameras.
This week, residents smiled widely as the first camera pole was mounted, signifying the beginning of the installation.
Ward councillor Melikhaya Gadeni confirmed the cameras have not been installed but says it’s only a matter of time.
Brown's Farm is notorious for hijackings, and has become a hotspot for Facebook MarketPlace scams where buyers or sellers are frequently robbed.
“The pole has been mounted at the Browns Farm community hall at the corner of Bristol and Amsterdam streets.
“The streets or the area is synonymous with FB MarketPlace, Uber robberies and shooting incidents in the area,” Gedeni says.
JP Smith, the City's Mayco member for safety and security, says the CCTV camera network in the City keeps demonstrating its worth.
He says Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis injected another R25 million to assist Saps in their mission to combat crime.
“Our vigilant operators will monitor the cameras and instantly alert our local Saps. With the cameras zooming in, sometimes hundreds of metres away, it is capturing the cunning methods used by criminals in an attempt to hide their actions.”
Nyanga Community Police Forum (CPF) secretary Dumisani Qwebe says they’ve been calling for CCTV cameras for a long time as criminals are having a field day.
“We are appealing that they should speed it up. In Philippi there are many crimes taking place, the issue of Facebook MarketPlace, hijacking, extortion,” he says.
The cameras should be operational by the end of this financial year, according to Gedeni.
“There residents are happy with the planned rollout of CCTV cameras, they are happy and ecstatic about it.”