Background of Area | Project Overview| Community Meeting | The Way Forward | ALL MULTIMEDIA

Through our preliminary focus groups and interaction with the community as well as the police and the Ward Councillor, we established two main issues regarding crime in the Fingo and Vukani areas. Firstly, the family feud between the Nikelo and Twala/Klaas families was a recurring theme in all discussions surrounding crime in the area. Secondly, it became apparent that the lack of any clear sense of authority figures, with specific regard to crime fighting and prevention, was allowing for a surge in vigilante justice and a profound sense of misplaced authority. 

Being a multimedia project, we tackled these primary issues through our different media platforms in the following ways:

In terms of print production, the intention was to empower the community with information regarding their rights so as to counter the intimidation and confusion that has resulted from the family feud and the poor relationship between the police and the community. As such we produced a brochure outlining the basic rights that would be most pertinent to the people in these areas. The brochure was in both Xhosa and English. We also distributed flyers and posters (to popular community meeting places such as taverns and shops) that outlined basic emergency protocol so as to encourage the community to report crimes to the police.

We also compiled a feedback report that outlined our project and its outcomes as well as the setbacks we faced. The report was created specifically for the various stakeholders in the area, including the police and the Ward Councillor. Throughout our project, many of our efforts were thwarted by the incompetency of some members of the police force, and as such the report includes an open letter to the police in the hope that the necessary measures will be taken to improve policing in the area as well as remedy the fraught relationship between the police and community.

Our television students set themselves the task of producing a short news-style insert covering the current events arising from the developing family feuds.  This news insert allowed us to get a basic understanding of the situation, as well an opportunity to meet the main stakeholders; mainly Michael Nikelo and his supporters. From there, we decided to seek out the other side of the story in the form of the family of the alleged murderers Luthando and Ayanda.

After speaking to this family briefly, we decided to create two mirror pieces which would present both sides of the feud. These were then shown in a community meeting, and incited a great deal of emotional response, leading to the necessity of another meeting, which was held between the two main families. This was also filmed, and the resulting documentary will be used to demonstrate the results of the peace-seeking journalism we aimed to produce.

In terms of photographic and radio outputs, the first sound-slide we produced explores the relationship between the Vukani community, the police and the justice system. Frustrations climaxed on the 22nd of September when residents marched to the Magistrates Court to oppose the granting of bail of two murder suspects as well as to demand the release of three community members who had attempted to get rid of criminals in Vukani without police assistance. The specifics of the vigilante action are not clear, but the sound-slide does attempt to explain the cause of the action – the fact that police response and performance within Vukani is dismal. 

The second sound-slide is narrated by Siya, a CPF member in the Vukani community. Siya explains his role as a CPF member and points out common issues the community face in terms of crime; he also narrates a few specific incidents of crime as experienced by community members.  

Please see ALL MULTIMEDIA to view the abovementioned multimedia items.