Police in Mitchell’s Plain are still trying to get to the bottom of a double murder in Eastridge Tuesday evening.
A 20-year-old man and seven-year-old child were shot and killed in Kameel Street. The police’s Frederick Van Wyk says the motive is not known, but investigations into the incident continues.
“Two counts of murder cases were registered for investigation. The suspects fled the scene and are yet to be arrested.”
This is the second incident, in less than a week, where a child has been killed. On Sunday, a 12-year-old girl was gunned down in Wesbank. Two other teenagers were injured in this incident as well.
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Varenique Williams, of the Mitchell’s Plain Community Policing Forum (CPF), says the death of the young boy from Eastridge comes roughly a year after his family were affected by a similar incident.
The Eastridge community’s outrage
Some members of the Eastridge community expressed upset by the ambulance’s delayed response to the Tuesday evening incident. One member, who requested to remain anonymous, says he was disappointed to note that the ambulance arrived almost an hour after the incident occurred.
“In other words, our lives in the Cape Flats doesn’t matter at all. My thing is this, if something happens in Camps Bay, Sea Point, Constantia… one of those areas, you see two or three [ambulance service vehicles] there. What makes the Cape Flats area different to those areas.”
But Williams, from the CPF, says the ambulance’s delayed response is due to the high rates of crime in the area.
“Emergency services are dependent on law enforcement agencies’ support to enter what we call ‘red zones’, because often the emergency services support staff are attacked or caught up in crossfire.”
The anonymous community member’s rebuttal is that law enforcement officials were out in numbers for the Springbok Trophy Tour in Cape Town last week Friday – but notes that “when something in the Cape Flats areas, there’s always not enough SAPS and law enforcement members”.
