Two civilians allegedly shot by cops in shootout between gangs in Manenberg

Two civilians in their twenties were shot in Manenberg, Cape Town, on Thursday, allegedly by police officers responding to a shootout involving rival gangs. The shootings prompted an angry community response. 

Multiple sources from the community said one man was shot in the head and the other in his buttocks. 

"This office is aware of the shooting incident. Two men in their twenties were shot and wounded," said SAPS spokesperson Noloyiso Rwexana.

The Independent Police Investigative Directive (Ipid) was unavailable for comment. 

This incident comes barely a day after a two-year-old and her 19-year-old aunt were wounded in a shooting that is also believed to have been gang-related in the violence-wracked Cape Flats area. 

A video has emerged of the crime scene, in which the two men can be seen lying on the ground, writhing in pain, as angry community members surround them. 

A community member, who asked to remain anonymous, told TimesLIVE that she had witnessed the incident. 

"They (the men who were shot) were on the field next to a scrapyard and shooting commenced between gangs," she said. "They fell to the floor to avoid shootings but were shot by police.

"We saw the cop. Before he left he got out of his vehicle and checked on the bodies before taking off," the community member said.

Roegschanda Pascoe from Manenburg Community Forum said the community was angered by the killing and had retaliated against the officers alleged to have been responsible. 

"They have shot two guys who were not involved in the shootings," she said. "That really angered the community, you are shooting drug addicts, not gangs. They started throwing the police with stones," she said. 

"How can it be that there is shooting when the guys are a fair distance away from the place where the gangs were shooting? They were unarmed and were laying on the ground to take cover.

"They didn't cordon off the crime scene, they were clever," she said. "The bullet shells were not recovered and there's going to be a lack of evidence."

Speaking to TimesLIVE on Thursday, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said that conversations regarding gang violence with national police commissioner General Khehla Sithole, on Wednesday were "productive" and that they had established a commitment to deploy 1,000 more officers to the understaffed Cape Flats area, where 2,200 people have been killed in the past seven months. 

"The situation is out of control," he said. "I’m hellbent on taking action against the crime wave."