Stray bullets kill dozens of innocents in Cape gang war zone

Dozens of innocent people have been killed on the Cape Flats this year, many of them children playing in parks. Most died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in the crossfire between warring gangsters.

In Mitchells Plain, the largest policing precinct on the Cape Flats, the murder rate increased from 82 in 2004 to 158 last year, according to police statistics. In nearby Manenberg, the murder rate has doubled over the past decade. In comparison, the national murder rate has dropped slightly over the past 10 years.

Many residents feel the police are not doing enough. But when the police were asked this week what resources they needed to wipe out gangsterism in the area, this was the response from head of communications, Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut: "The Western Cape police have resources to deal with crime and gang-related matters in the province. It is worth mentioning that Operation Combat under the leadership of Major-General Jeremy Vearey has achieved numerous successes policing gang-related crimes and specifically targeting gang leaders in the Western Cape. Recently, several convictions have been achieved with regards to Poca [Prevention of Organised Crime Act], and we will continue to prosecute those responsible for gangsterism."

But there have been few convictions.

While many victims' relatives are too scared to speak about their tragedies, 10 families told the Sunday Times how their lives had been destroyed by misguided bullets.

JUCINTA MATROOS

When Mary Goliath heard that her 12-year-old granddaughter, Jucinta Matroos, had died after being shot while playing at a park near her home on March 8, she had a stroke.

Now confined to a wheelchair, she sits on the porch at her home in Beacon Valley every day thinking about the girl. "She was such a beautiful child. I can't stop thinking about that day. I wonder if she cried, and who closed her eyes.

"She had such a funny laugh. I miss her every day. She loved gospel music and netball. She was her mother's best friend. They did everything together. She was a happy child."

Goliath plans on selling her house and moving to the Eastern Cape.

"The fault lies with the community. They don't work with the police. We blame [Western Cape Premier Helen] Zille and [President Jacob] Zuma, but it's not a government issue, it's a community issue."

While she still harbours anger towards the man charged with the shooting, she has chosen to lean on her faith.

"I put him in the hands of the Lord," she said.

JAYLIN SCULLARD

Jaylin Scullard was just 10 when he was shot in the heart by gangsters while playing near his house.

"He wrote me a letter that I still keep. It said, 'Mommy, I love you' and they took that from me," said his mom, Dalene Scullard.

"He was so loving and helpful. Nobody could ever say anything negative about him."

Scullard, of Beacon Valley in Mitchells Plain, was walking home on July 14 last year when she heard shots. She ran to a neighbour for refuge, and when she got home she saw a crowd around her house.

In their midst was Jaylin. He had been shot by members of the Nice Times gang. He died on the way to hospital.

"It's like in the movies when everything around you goes quiet. I just stood still while everything around me went on," Scullard said.

A man has been arrested in connection with the shooting.

KASHIEFA SOLOMONS

For Ruwayda Brenner Swartland of Eastridge in Mitchells Plain, the wound is still fresh. Her daughter, Kashiefa Brenner Solomons, 28, was shot dead on February 26 this year.

The mother of four was on her way to a shop to buy bread for her six-year-old son's school lunch. "About 28 shots went off and one hit her."

Although a man has been arrested, Swartland believes the justice system has failed her. "The police are visible, but when they leave we are left with them [the gangsters]," she said.

Kashiefa was shot at close range on her left side, in what Swartland believes was a shooting by the Ghetto Kids gang.

Swartland remembers her daughter as a loving person, with a child-like quality.

Swartland now cares for her four grandchildren.

"I have to be strong for them, but at night is when I can cry."

WILMARY BOOYSEN

When Wilmary Booysen saw a childhood acquaintance lying lifeless on the ground - gunned down by gangsters only minutes after she had spoken to him - she was so traumatised that she had a fatal heart attack.

Only 15 minutes earlier on April 11 this year, Booysen, 28, had been speaking to 24-year-old Shaun Kordom, while nursing her sister's baby on the stairs outside her mother's house in Belhar on the Cape Flats.

Minutes later Booysen heard shots, and immediately thought about her five-year-old son Bjorn, who was playing soccer nearby.

She went to check on him, but found Kordom's bullet-riddled body. She collapsed.

Elder sister Jolene said: "Wilmary was very soft; whenever she saw things like that she would turn her head and [grimace]. I think that was just too much for her."

Paramedics confirmed that she had suffered a heart attack.

Booysen ran a shop from her mother's house, and was loved in the community, said Jolene.

"She cared about people," said Jolene. "Every Christmas she would buy clothes for the really poor people here."

No arrests have been made.

SHAMILA EKSTEEN

Detective Lutfie Eksteen sits in a chair in his childhood home and stares at the steps leading to the bedroom upstairs.

"My mom died on the landing there ... I was too late to save her. When I saw the blood coming out of her mouth, I lost it and ran out of the house.

"It is hard living with the fact that the gangsters came for me and when they could not find me, they killed my mother.

"They hurt me so very badly. But they haven't broken me. If they think I will give up the fight because of what they did, they are sadly mistaken. I will continue to do whatever it takes to fight gangsterism. This is the best way I can honour my mother and her memory."

Eksteen is a member of the police antigang unit, Operation Combat, in Cape Town.

He was born and raised in Manenberg.

His mother, Shamila Eksteen, 71, was killed in October last year while her son was trying to broker a peace deal between warring gangs.

A few days before the attack, Eksteen had tweeted: "Gang's days are numbered." It is believed this was the final straw for the gangsters, whose lives he has been making difficult since joining the police force in 2007.

"[My mother] was loved by all. She used to bake mountains of biscuits for school events. Everybody knew her and there is a kind of unwritten rule, even in a gangster's world, that you do not deliberately mess with your enemy's family.

"In this case it was clear this was no mistake. They knocked on the door and when my brother opened, they asked him if he knew where the flower sellers lived. He told them they were at the wrong place and was escorting them off the property when he heard the gun being cocked. He struggled with the gunman and shots went off. They shot him through the hand and through the back, missing his heart by inches.

"Then they went inside and found my mom on the landing. They shot her through her side, rupturing nearly all her internal organs," he said.

No arrests have been made.

Last month the Eksteen family home came under attack once again when two petrol bombs were thrown through the window. No one was hurt.

ZANE THOMAS

Mymoena Thomas has vowed to kill her grandson's murderers if she finds them.

Fifteen-year-old Zane Thomas was shot dead near their home in Eastridge, Mitchells Plain, on Tuesday evening this week . "His mother left and I raised him as my own since he was a young child," said Thomas, fighting back tears.

"I wouldn't allow anyone to hurt him, but this time I couldn't do anything."

She said Zane had been walking to the shop across the road with a friend and her three-year-old son. His friend's boyfriend was a member of the Ghetto Boys, a local gang.

They went into a yard to see her boyfriend when three members of a rival gang, the Dixie Boys, followed them and shot at them.

Zane was hit in the neck and in his side, his friend was shot in her leg, her boyfriend had his finger shot off and the toddler was shot twice in his hand.

When Thomas arrived at the scene, Zane was barely alive.

"I held his hand and all he said was: 'Mamma, Mamma,'" she said. "I asked him what it was he wanted to say, but he died in my arms." She said Zane was a hard-working boy who loved to play music on a computer she had bought him.

No one has been arrested.

SHARINA ARENDSE

Sharina Arendse, 48, was a dedicated mother of three. On Sunday last week, she was killed by bullets meant for gangsters.

"In Manenberg we are used to seeing death. But when it happens to you, it's a totally different pain altogether," said her sister Gouwah Ebrahiem, 38.

"On Sunday night, just after Isha - the Islamic evening prayer - one of the local tik addicts known as Michael came to my door and asked me for some bread.

"I told him I did not have any and sent my daughter to ask Sharina, who was well known for her charitable ways. She came out with bread for Michael and told him she was on her way to her friends. She asked him to walk with her. A few moments later I heard five shots ring out. Then someone called her youngest son and told him his mom has been shot.

"It was terrible. Niezaar, who is only 15 years old, ran to the scene holding his head in his hands. It was heartbreaking. My sister died in my arms, shot in the head."

There have been no arrests.

AUSTIN WILLIAMS

On April 6, Easter Monday, 18-year-old Austin Williams spent the day watching movies with his family at their home in Hanover Park.

The keen Manchester United fan then left to play soccer with his cousin and friends.

The boys were playing at a field nearby when there was a drive-by shooting.

The Batavia Technical School pupil was shot in the leg; an artery was severed. He lost blood and was declared dead before reaching the hospital.

His cousin Shabier Karim was hit three times, and one of their friends was shot in the leg.

They were taken to hospital and treated for their wounds.

Austin's distraught mother, Tracy Williams, said there had been no arrests. She said her son did not deserve such a horrible fate.

"Austin was a very quiet and respectable boy. He had many friends and was looking forward to his matric dance this year."

Karim, 17, who is struggling to speak after being hit in the head, said he and his cousin enjoyed talking about "girls and soccer and stuff".

Even though he had a love for sport, Austin always dreamt of becoming a boilermaker, and had a passion for engineering.

KEENAN ABRAHAMS

"Mommy, I won't die, everything will be okay," 11-year-old Keenan Abrahams promised his mother, Sharon, moments after being shot four times during a gang shooting on April 5.

Keenan had been playing in the park across his house in Factreton when an argument broke out between gangsters and a gun battle ensued.

His twin brother, Keano, had returned home after their mother called them in, but Keenan wanted to play just a bit longer.

When she heard the shots and saw only Keano inside, Sharon ran for the door. But she was held back by family members concerned for her safety as she screamed: "Let me go, let me go! My boy is outside."

Once the shooting had stopped, a neighbour found Keenan collapsed in the park and carried him to his mother's house.

Keenan was shot twice in the chest and twice in the foot, but he kept his promise.

After 10 days in hospital, he returned home.

"I want to be a policeman when I grow up, so I can catch the people who almost killed me," he said.

Police have arrested two men, although a third shooter remains at large.

JOHANNA SWARTZ

Johanna Swartz, 21, was woken up at about 9am on April 4 by the sound of shots. She lives on the second floor of a block of flats in Manenberg.

"I started to get up, and then I heard what I thought was a balloon popping. I felt a burning in my side, but did not realise I had been shot. I walked into the kitchen and told my mom I wasn't feeling well. I felt funny ... my mom looked at me and took my hand away from where I was feeling the burn on my chest. The blood just started to flow. I felt myself growing warm, but I remained calm," she explained.

Her family called the police and an ambulance, which took her to Groote Schuur Hospital. The bullet, which had come through the window, was removed during emergency surgery.

"If you don't live here you will never understand the fear that rules us. Day and night you fear being hurt. But I never thought I'd be shot in my own bedroom here on the second floor. There is no one in Manenberg who can claim that they are safe."

No arrests have been made.