Lusikisiki community members and workers were united in shutting down all activities of businesses today, 19 September 2022.
Community members were joined by shop owners, retail managers, and hawkers in a demonstration from the Lusikisiki Plaza passing through town and all the way to the police station where they went to submit a petition of demands.
Despite the persistent rain and the cold, the community and workers came out in numbers to march to the police station. Singing revolutionary songs and chanting “Enough is enough,” these dissatisfied and concerned members of the community say they want to make Lusikisiki safe for everyone again.
Crowds of demonstrators gathered at the Lusikisiki police station where they demanded to meet with Brigadier Chiya who is the station commander of the Lusikisiki police station. Police officers at the Lusikisiki police station closed the main gates of the police station allowing only the organizers of the march in.
The demands of the petition were very few and straight to the point, the main complaints are the high crime rate in Lusikisiki. Brigadier Chiya must step down with immediate effect because he is failing the community. And lastly, they demand that Eastern Cape police officers must be circulated around different police stations and not stay in one place.
Community member and chairperson of the hawker’s committee Zwelidumile Maphamela said;
We want these police officers to be circulated around the Easter Cape because when they stay here long they end up being too used to the area and relax, and that makes it easy for them to even take bribes so they must circulate, if a police officer started work here they must not retire while still being here.
The petition was received by constable Majaja who addressed the angry crowd and promised them to forward the petition to the station commander who was not present at the station.
One angry community member from the crowd shouted out that;
If you would order a pizza online and call the police about a crime at the same time, the pizza delivery scooter will arrive first before the police that’s just how slow our police are
The crime rate at Lusikisiki is extremely high and it continues soaring by the day, rape, murder, housebreaking and robberies are the major crimes at Lusikisiki. Robberies of retail shops happen on a regular with some shops such as PEP stores being robbed more than twice.
The petition of demands was handed in and the organisers of the march addressed the crowd and agreed to give the police 24 hours to respond to the petition and come up with a plan for improving Lusikisiki.
Boxer stores manager Moses Dudela thanked the crowd for coming out in numbers and added by saying “We as the community must work with the police, we are not at Lusikisiki merely for work but we are born here so it breaks our hearts to see Lusikisiki with such a high crime rate. And we as a community know who the culprits are so let us report them to the police”.
