Young gang members display gang signs. Photo by Cumani Ndabambi.
18 September 2013
Township residents are complaining that murders in the townships are not being taken seriously with media and political attention focusing on the Cape Flats.
In the past few months, the media has reported heavily on gang fights around the Manenberg area, which caused schools to close. Western Cape Premier Helen Zille visited the Manenberg area and assured the residents that something will be done to stop the fighting.
Meanwhile in Nyanga over the past two weeks more than five gang-related deaths have occurred amongst teenage gang members. And in Khayelitsha the war between gang members intensified after a gang boss was brutally killed by a rival gang on September 9. This followed a spate of gang related murders in the area.
A resident from Makhaza, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the gangs have been killing each other but cases are not opened because, since it is a gang fight, no one is brave enough to report it to the police.
Bulumko High School in Khayelitsha was raided by a gang on September 12, causing chaos and disrupting classes.
In Delft, there are fights between gangs of learners who wait after school to stab one another.
Linda Sondlala of Delft said that she and some community members have been complaining to the police that they do not feel safe in the Leiden area because of the gang fighting.
A security guard at KTC hospital in Gugulethu said every weekend scores of young people come to the hospital after being stabbed or beaten. “Sometimes these boys hide in the nearby shacks as they wait for their enemies to come out of the hospital and attack them again”.
Currently most schools in Nyanga and Khayelitsha are patrolled by police during school hours to keep learners safe.
Residents believe patrols are not enough because the gangs fight at night and they rob people returning from work in the afternoon.
Ncebakazi Willem from Khayelitsha said she understands that the fights in the Cape Flats are dangerous and that children are affected, but she feels fights in the townships are neglected by government and less is being done about it.
“Young people from the ages of 14 to 23 fight to kill each other in the township as they do not see a future … I think residents should gather and protest. We don’t feel safe in our own homes. We also need help. Our children are dying everyday”.
According to the Integrated Provincial Violence Framework drafted in August 2013 by the Western Cape government, 23 percent of children aged 12 to 17 have been hurt in a violent incident while at school. The framework states that gangsterism is endemic in the province and increasingly affects young people at school-going level. Learners are also most likely to be perpetrators of violence at school and beyond.
There are violence prevention strategies drafted in the final draft of the framework but there is no clear indication when the implementation of these strategies will take place.
This story has been fact-checked by GroundUp.