Action Society calls on SAPS to prioritise probes into recent child murders in CT

Civil rights organisation Action Society is calling on the South African Police Service (SAPS) to prioritise investigations into recent child murders in Cape Town and intensify operations in gang-affected areas.
 
This, after several children were killed or wounded in crossfire of suspected gang violence in the past week.
 
Nine-year-old Zechariah Matthee was one of three people killed when gunmen opened fire in Rocklands, Mitchells Plain, last Tuesday night.
 
Fourteen-year-old Alnika Mitchell was shot dead in her front yard in Kensington on Saturday. 
 
Then, on Sunday, a 14-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy were shot and wounded when gunmen in a passing car opened fire on an adult man, hitting the children while playing outside. 
 
Action Society's Kaylyn Palm said the incidents paint a horrifying picture, and warns that without real policing capacity and community driven safety interventions, more children will die.
  
"Cape Town’s children are living in a war zone while government remains paralysed. We need specialised localised policing with real resources and real accountability. Our communities cannot survive a system that is distant, centralised and failing at every basic level.”