Bullet proof cubes could be built around playgrounds to keep kids safe in South Africa
Bulletproof cubes may be installed on playgrounds in South Africa after a schoolgirl was caught in the crossfire of a gangland shootout.
Cubes equipped with CCTV, panic buttons and a hotline to summon police may be installed at an estimated cost of £425,000, as part of an anti-gun charity campaign.
The 20m by 20m boxes can take 24 children each session and entrances will be protected by facial recognition, volunteers and parents.
Gun Free SA has spent a year creating a prototype for its vision, which will be first introduced in the Mitchell’s Plain area of Cape Town if the city approves its plans later this year.
The plans come after Zamawushe Momoti, 16, was shot dead at her school gates when a bullet hit her in the face on Friday.
She staggered back onto the grounds of Belgravia High School in Cape Town, collapsing in the playground where she died in a pool of blood as a gun battle raged on.
She’s the latest of a rising number of children to become ‘collateral damage’ in a war being waged by heavily armed criminals for territory and drugs on the streets of South Africa.
Adele Kirsten, director of the Gun Free SA pressure group, said: ‘We have been campaigning for 25 years to eradicate the root cause of this problem which is guns on the streets but things have got worse and we are plagued by gang violence.’
Guns kill more than 11,000 people a year, and nearly half the 75 people murdered in the country each day.
Nearly half the children hospitalised in Cape Town with gunshot wounds were victims of crossfire bullets in the last 20 years.
Some 131 schools have been held up at gunpoint, with teachers and pupils robbed, in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro – an area the size of Gloucestershire – in the last five months alone.
One attack was so violent, only nine of 30 teachers returned to the classrooms afterwards.
Most schools that can afford it already have fences of bulletproof mesh round their perimeters, and teachers instruct students to hide under desks at the first sound of gunfire.
The Eastern Cape province is investing an extra £3million in extra security.
But the ‘outrageous problem’ of children being killed or injured in classrooms, playgrounds and on their way home has got so bad, Gun Free SA has had to come up with an ‘outrageous solution’.
Cubes equipped with CCTV, panic buttons and a hotline to summon police may be installed at an estimated cost of £425,000, as part of Gun Free SA’s The Bulletproof Park project.
The 20m by 20m boxes can take 24 children each session.
Entrances will be protected by facial recognition, volunteers and parents.
Gun Free SA has spent a year creating a prototype for their vision, which will be first introduced in the Mitchell’s Plain area of Cape Town if the city approves its plans later this year.
Adele Kirsten said: ‘The area we have selected for the first playground is one that reported many deaths of children who became victims simply for playing in the wrong place at the wrong time.
‘The Bulletproof Park is a quite outrageous solution to an outrageous problem but until the police remove illegal guns and destroy them we have to take action to bring real change.
‘It is all very good having tough laws but they have to be implemented and those who break them properly punished but at present the number of guns out there is out of control.
’The simple more viable and sensible solution is a more robust system to get guns off the street and destroy them but until then we have to act to keep our children safe.
She added: ‘The park will protect children while inside the cube but we need to keep them safe walking to and from school so we are also developing a range of bullet proof vests for kids.’
Despite the £425,000 price tags, these bulletproof playgrounds may be cheaper than bearing the cost of continuing gun deaths and injuries.
The cost of medical treatment for those shot in South Africa was a £260million in 2014, when it was last costed.
Most of the gun violence is contained within townships and areas of poverty.
Criminologist Guy Lambs says there are so many victims of crossfire here because they’re so densely populated.
He said: ‘Given the township areas in which these things happens houses are small so lots of children are playing out in the streets because they don’t have any gardens.
’Gangsters are shooting randomly and wildly so children get caught in the crossfire.’
Cape Flats Safety Forum chairperson Abie Isaacs said: ‘The communities are plagued by gang violence and many parents fear their children will be struck by a gang bullet.
’We welcome the proposals as we believe parks should be a safe space for children and right now our parks have become the homes for gangs to carry out their activities
‘They are at the centre of shootings, drug dealing and other nefarious activities. We are to go into a meeting with Gun Free SA to be briefed on proposals and park locations.
’Then we will have more clarity but we support this developing concept.’
Mitchells Plain Community Police Forum spokesman Norman Jantjes said: ‘We welcome any initiative aimed at making playgrounds safer for kids and await talks with GFSA.’
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