The Melville Residents’ Association (MRA) and Melville Security Initiative (MSI) express sincere condolences to friends and families of the people who died, and to the people who were injured in a senseless shooting incident at Poppy’s on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street early Wednesday morning.

It is the intention of both the MRA and MSI to create a safe environment for everyone visiting, working and living in Melville, where everyone feels the freedom to enjoy the wonderful amenities our neighbourhood has to offer.

It is therefore with great sadness that we saw forces outside of our control take the joy from what was supposed to have been a festive occasion, and steal the lives of innocent people.

Over the past few years, our community has fallen victim to poor policing and poor bylaw enforcement by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the City of Johannesburg.

After repeated appeals by the MSI and the MRA to the mentioned authorities as well as the Gauteng Liquor Board, they have still not addressed well known issues in our community such as establishments operating outside of their landuse or their allocated trading hours, crowd control, selling liquor without the appropriate licenses, or the granting of operating licenses in close proximity to educational facilities.

These issues have continually formally and informally been lodged with the City of Johannesburg, SAPS and the Gauteng Liquor Board by the MSI, MRA and individual residents.

The MSI and MRA once again express our sincere condolences to the families, friends and victims of the senseless shooting.

We will continue in 2020 to appeal to all authorities to work with the MRA and MSI to ensure that everyone in Melville feels safe, and similar incidents never again occur.