The Mitchells Plain community is reeling from a wave of gang-related shootings that have left several dead in recent days. Local crime-fighters say they no longer know how to continue their fight against rampant violence.

This follows the murder of three teenagers in separate incidents last week. On Thursday, 8 May, a 17-year-old boy was shot dead in a drive-by-style shooting in Beacon Valley. Earlier in the week, two young men, aged 18 and 19, were gunned down in a separate incident in Tafelsig.

The chairperson of the Mitchells Plain Community Policing Forum (CPF), Norman Jantjies, expressed deep concern about the continued bloodshed.

“It’s been ongoing, I would say sometimes it’s just a slight lull of a few days. But then it would just recur,” said Jantjies.

Jantjies believes that with the current rate at which gun violence is occurring in Mitchells Plain, the average number of murders have increased.

“In the first three months of this year, we’ve had an average of eight murders a month. But I’m sure now in April, we probably hovering around about 12 to 15 murders in April.”

Meanwhile, he suggests that the efforts of crimefighters, like the Community Policing Forum, have been exhausted in the fight against rampant gang and gun violence.

“I don’t think we’ve got the answer. Government will have to either declare a state of emergency… We, as a CPF, we’ve been calling for a commission of inquiry, because it can’t be normal for people to live in these situations,” said Jantjies.

Jantjies further warned of the broader impact on the community, including high school dropout rates due to gang-controlled territories.

“Some learners drop out of the school because they must pass a particular gang territory, or maybe a certain gang has got a little bit of a stronghold on some of the schools,” he said.

While hope is minimal, Jantjies suggests that a “gang strategy” should be implemented, as policing has proven not to be enough.

“There are people in the community that are calling for the army to be deployed in Mitchell’s Plain, and I can understand where it comes from, because it’s almost a sense of helplessness and hopelessness in Mitchell’s Plain when it comes to gang violence and gangsterism. It’s almost a sense of helplessness, of hopelessness, in Mitchells Plain when it comes to gang violence and gangsterism,” said Jantjies.

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