Around 350 people attended the last of a series of meetings convened by the Ministers Fraternal, where police and councillors have faced questions from the community about the events of 21 October, and also addressed rumours about a serial killer and body parts murders in Grahamstown.
Around 350 people attended the last of a series of meetings convened by the Ministers Fraternal, where police and councillors have faced questions from the community about the events of 21 October, and also addressed rumours about a serial killer and body parts murders in Grahamstown.
Over two days, starting shortly after midday on 21 October, 300 immigrant-owned spaza shops across Grahamstown's townships were broken into and looted by mobs. SInce then their owners have been staying with their families in a safe zone in the area, where local government and private businesses, NGOs and individuals have been bringing food and clothing for them.
Others have left to stay with friends or family in other towns.
Wednesday’s events, the subsequent accusations and speculation, along with a cocktail of rumour about body parts murders and/or a serial killer in the area, have combined to cast a pall of suspicion, fear and mistrust over the town.
Facing a vocal crowd, which included Grahamstown residents, civil society organisation representatives, representatives of the displaced shopkeepers and members of the group who identify themselves as The Foreigners Wives, at the Joza Indoor Sports Centre on Sunday 1 November was an impressive showing of the town’s leadership. It included 10 councillors, members of the Ministers’ Fraternal, the SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco), representatives of the Grahamstown Anti Xenophobic Group, as well as Rhodes University Vice Chancellor, Dr Sizwe Mabizela.
Also present were representatives from the Pakistan South Africa Association, the South African Human Rights Commission, and the Commission for Gender Equality.
The meeting was chaired by the Ministers’ Fraternal’s, Dumile Monakale.
The Mayor, Nomhle Gaga, and commanders of the Joza and Grahamstown Police Stations, Colonel Syed Cassim, and Colonel Vuyisiwe Tembani, spoke to the crowd.
A number of other senior police officers were also present. Cassim, of Joza Police Station, said the police had held community meetings on 17 and 18 September and two on 21 September.
Cassim said the police had discussed the rumours of a serial killer, and of body parts murders at those meetings. He said the police had confirmed there was no serial killer, and that there had been no body parts murders.
He added that the police had also met with residents in Transit Camp, Extension 8 and Extension 9, on 19 October to share information with them and dispel the rumours.
Cassim said the area on which police had concentrated, based on information they had received, had not been looted on 21 October when 94 other spaza shops in Joza were.
“Police tried by all means to prevent looting,” Cassim said. He also pointed out that police had arrested 85 people in connection with the looting.
“Not one foreigner was injured.”
His last statement was in response to criticisms that the police had not done enough to stop the looters and protect the owners of the shops.
Police have since said their priority on the day of the looting had been to prevent injury and loss of life.
In response to accusations that police themselves had participated in the looting, Cassim said police had assisted in removing goods from some of the shops, at their owners’ request.
He said that a team that included the Dog Unit from Port Elizabeth had been involved in investigating recent murder cases in Grahamstown.
He also said that the top detectives on the Transit Camp and Mayfield cases, Captain Riaan Havenga and Detective Warrant Officer John Manzana, had 50 years’ experience between them and that the specialist conducting autopsies on the bodies to determine the causes of death had 20 years’ experience.
“We sent all information relating to the recent murders to a psychological investigator in Pretoria,” Cassim said. “He went through all the information and he confirmed that there is no serial killer involved.”
On Monday 26 October the police issued English and isiXhosa versions of a pamphlet dismissing the rumours.
The degree to which the rumours have become entrenched in the community became clear when, earlier in the meeting, Cassim re-emphasised the pamphlet’s main points. “There are no serial killers in Grahamstown,” Cassim said and the crowd, attentive until then, burst out in uproar.
Colonel Tembani later spoke about the fact forensics had found that dogs had caused the mutilation on some of the bodies discovered in the veld.
She also noted that, on average, 20 parolees a month were being released from prison.
In her address at the start of the meeting, Makana Mayor Nomhle Gaga said the lesson from the past two weeks’ events was that Grahamstown needed to be vigilant.
“It should not be seen again that we are taken by surprise.” She said it was not a time to point fingers.
“Let’s find a lasting solution to the real threat at hand,” Gaga said.
She said it was important for all those working to resolve the crisis to work together. “We must not work in silos,” Gaga said.
