Calls for safety at Gugulethu clinic
After two recent armed hijackings, staff and patients are demanding CCTV and heightened security
Staff and patients are demanding that police take urgent action against criminals in the area. Photo: Mary-Anne Gontsana
- Gugulethu residents, the community policing forum and staff of Gugulethu Community Health Centre are concerned about rising violent crime outside the clinic.
- Last month alone, there were two hijackings, one in which a staff member was taken from the facility to his home and robbed before the criminals made off with the state car he was driving.
- During the meeting, people suggested that CCTV be installed and called for more police visibility, among other interventions.
Staff and patients at the Gugulethu Community Health Centre say they don’t feel safe and are demanding that police take urgent action against criminals in the area. This follows at least two recent incidents where staff and visitors were hijacked while leaving the day hospital.
According to the SAPS third quarter crime statistics, Gugulethu had the fourth highest number of murders in the province and 8th highest in the country, with 60 cases between October 2024 and December 2024. It also ranked sixth highest in carjackings in the province, with 41 cases, and third highest in the number of rape cases, with 52 cases.
Last week, residents and staff from the clinic held an urgent meeting at the Gugulethu Scout Centre to discuss ways to improve safety at the state facility. Some of the recent crimes experienced by staff and patients just outside the clinic included hijackings and robberies. Last year, someone was stabbed and killed during a robbery outside the clinic.
Also in attendance were members of street committees, the neighbourhood watch, the community policing forum (CPF), South African Police Service (SAPS) officers, provincial government officials and emergency medical services staff.
Clinic manager Siviwe Menziwa told of the chilling incidents in April when a guest who had attended a meeting at the clinic was hijacked. In a separate incident, a staff member was also hijacked at gunpoint while leaving the clinic. The criminals drove with him to his home, robbed him of his belongings and fled with the state-owned car. The car has still not been recovered, said Menziwa.
Gugulethu CPF chairperson Deon Makiti said it will take more than the police’s interventions to deal with crime in the community. He added that “when a staff member is hijacked and put on leave, that contributes to staff shortages which will affect services to patients.”
“People get robbed just outside the clinic gates. E-hailing services have also been hijacked and robbed to the point that it’s now difficult to request e-hailing cars from the clinic,” said Makiti.
In May 2017, GroundUp reported on an incident where a porter, Andile Magama, died after he was stabbed outside the clinic. His death sparked a protest and a march. In response to this, in June 2017, then Deputy Minister of Police Bongani Mkongi handed over a mobile police station for the clinic.
But according to former ward 41 councillor Mimi Manatha, who also addressed the meeting last week, the mobile police station no longer exists. “We also must acknowledge the problem that many of these crimes are not being reported. That tells us that people do not trust SAPS.”
Gugulethu police station acting station commissioner Soyiso Mantyi said crime has become a “serious crisis” in the community. “What we all need to remember is that Gugulethu Day Hospital belongs to the people and we need to take it back. This can only be done if we all unite, nothing good can come out of being divided,” said Mantyi.
He suggested that CCTV be installed in and around the clinic and at identified hotspots. He also promised that SAPS officers would communicate better with other emergency medical staff to improve service delivery.
Provincial health department spokesperson Samantha Lee-Jacobs said officials agreed with the call for community members to get involved in safeguarding the clinic. “The facility has security on the grounds at all entrance and exit points.”
“Staff and patient safety require a whole of society approach, and we have requested the police, community policing forum and neighbourhood watch to increase visibility on the routes around the facility … we need our staff to feel safe when accessing their workplace,” said Lee-Jacobs.
Police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk said SAPS “immediate steps” were taken to make the area safer after the two incidents in April. This included regular patrols and stop-and-searches at different checkpoints around the hospital. He said a visitor register had also been set up inside that must be signed by police officials when patrolling the hospital.
“Further operational information cannot be shared with the media,” said Van Wyk.
Support independent journalism
Donate using Payfast
© 2025 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.