CAPE TOWN: A surge of gang-related killings in Cape Town’s dangerous neighbourhoods has sparked community outrage and demands for protection as city officials admit lacking resources to control the violence.
Protesters recently chanted “one gangster, one bullet” during marches organised by anti-gang groups in the Cape Flats area following 59 murders recorded over seven days last month.
Cape Flats Safety Forum activist Lynn Phillips stated that communities live in constant fear of gun violence that permeates their daily lives.
Municipal safety official Jean-Pierre Smith described the death toll as deeply alarming during a nighttime patrol through neglected city areas.
Smith confirmed a massive spike in murders averaging about 300 every three months due to leadership and turf battles between drug and extortion gangs.
Recent victims include a two-month-old boy struck by a stray bullet inside his home and a 12-year-old girl killed in crossfire.
Police vehicles patrolled Lavender Hill suburb where children played outside cramped apartments during the nighttime operation.
Officers frisked individuals and checked vehicles, seizing codeine-based cough syrup from one car and taking the driver for questioning.
Smith photographed gang insignia spray-painted on public buildings during the patrol that targeted men of “gang age” from late teens to 25 years old.
He acknowledged a known deficiency in police ability to detect crime, investigate incidents, and drive prosecutions effectively.
Local resident Tanya Ruyters angrily accused police of inaction and disrespect after her son was allegedly shot by a gangster outside a court.
Smith revealed that only two to three percent of gang-related murders in Cape Town result in convictions due to overloaded detectives handling massive case volumes.
Gangs are becoming more sophisticated while recruiting corrupt judges and police officers onto their payrolls according to the safety official.
Western Cape province records South Africa’s second-highest murder rate with Cape Town districts holding the country’s top five spots for killings.
Lavender Hill resident Mark Nicholson lives near an area known as “the battlefield” due to its history as a gangster killing ground.
He has lost seven relatives to gang violence in three years within suburbs created during apartheid-era forced removals.
Nicholson runs a project diverting youngsters from streets into sports rather than fighting gangsters directly.
Some groups demand more radical action including army deployment to combat gang lawlessness in communities.
People Against Gangsterism and Drugs representative Zainoneesa Rashid called for clear messages against gangster control ahead of recent protests. – AFP