Cape Town - The situation in Manenberg remains volatile after seven people were gunned down, this past week, in ongoing gang violence. Terrified residents now fear for their own and their children’s lives.
The separate incidents – which occurred at Inga Court in Sabie Road and on Ruimte Road and Renoster Road between Wednesday and Saturday, left seven victims between the ages of 19 and 37 dead.
Police spokesperson Wesley Twigg said murder cases were opened but the perpetrators have yet to be arrested.
CPF chairperson Vernon Visagie said the situation remained tense.
“The community is fed up because these shootings are affecting their livelihoods. The children can no longer play in the parks and are kept indoors. Gunshots are heard in the early hours of the morning while children are supposed to go to school.
“It has now become very unpredictable because you do not know when it might flare up again. We are, however, addressing the situation as we have noted that this has reached boiling point,” he said.
Visagie said the CPF held a march in the community last weekend for public awareness.
Activist Roegshanda Pascoe said more innocent lives were being lost than those of gang members and perpetrators of gang violence.
“What’s currently happening is that one of these gangs wants to be the Hard Livings gang by taking ownership.
“We have the new gangs, which are the Fancy Boys, operating in Manenberg and Tambo Village, and from day one they have started to kill the Americans, trying to wipe them out, followed by the Hard Livings, which are the two strongest gangs in Manenberg.
“If you overthrow them you automatically step in and take leadership because the smaller gangs like the Dixie Boys, Jesters and Clever Kids do not have the manpower and fire-power to take leadership and therefore the Fancy Boys, which I believe are connected to the other big gangs, are providing them with guns to carry out this fight and infiltrate Manenberg,” Pascoe said.
Meanwhile, community safety standing committee chairperson Reagan Allen said the Community Safety Department deployed the Leap Reaction Unit on Saturday to further capacitate and bolster the operations led by the Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) and metro police, which are also aimed at curbing gang violence in the area.
Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale, together with the management of the SAPS and Agriculture, Land Reforms, and Rural Development Deputy Minister Mcebisi Skwatsha is expected to engage the community today to address concerns relating to crimes, substance abuse and gangsterism.