[imagesource:iol]

Cape Town’s gang infestation is seeping into every crevice of the region.

After the recent killing of two security guards in Philippi East, a gang involved in extortion is asserting that they, rather than security firms, deserve compensation for safeguarding the City of Cape Town’s infrastructure and its employees.

“All we want is for the government to understand that the protection of their workers and companies contracted to them is our business,” said one of two members of a Philippi gang GroundUp spoke to on Friday, who clarified that they nor their gang were involved in shooting the security guards on 23 April, claiming rather that a rival gang was responsible.

It’s all suspiciously convenient, isn’t it? Commit murder and spread chaos only to turn to the authorities and say they are the best agents of peace and civility. At this stage, I am not even sure if the SA government is smart enough to realise that this is brazen manipulation. They’ve fallen for it before.

Already, there is evidence of the authorities obfuscating:

The Western Cape SAPS media liaison office declined to release the names of the deceased security guards, with media liaison officer Joseph Swartbooi referring GroundUp to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said it was “strange” that SAPS referred enquiries to him as the NPA were not involved at this point.

The extortionists stated that they and fellow gangs convened and reached an agreement that security firms would face retaliation if they stepped into their territories.

The security companies were doing what the gangs are “supposed to be doing”, and by attacking them “we are showing they are useless”, they said.

They suggest that if the government paid the gangs to protect infrastructure and staff, there would be no intimidation, threats or killings – even when they are the ones committing the intimidation, threats and killings.

Government employees and their contractors are targeted because “the government does not seem to want to negotiate with us”.

“There will be no security company coming to our areas and escorting government workers and their contracted companies because that duty is for us to do. When the government does not want to meet us half-way, more lives will be lost and there will be bloodshed.”

The gangsters said they only wanted a few thousand rands “from the millions of rands that they are paying the security companies”.

“R50,000 a month to protect workers from five different areas would not harm the government,” one of the gang members said. He said security companies were being paid more than the gangsters were asking.

On Tuesday, armed security guards accompanied five operational staff members from the City to Phola Park, Philippi East, for repair and maintenance work on a sewer line. As the staff disembarked to inspect the pipe, two armed individuals approached the City vehicle while another two headed towards a nearby toilet block, where gunfire erupted. Both security guards were fatally wounded, and a City staff member was injured in a fall while attempting to flee along with residents.

SAPS Western Cape spokesperson Frederick van Wyk said the unknown suspects fled with the guns and the keys to the City Council vehicle and confirmed that no arrests have yet been made.

Mayco Member for Water and Sanitation Zahid Badroodien said various City services were “severely impacted by criminal attacks” in parts of Philippi. This included the Kosovo informal settlement, where a stormwater upgrading project was underway.

Badroodien said on 17 April, City staff were also robbed in two separate incidents, one in Elsies River and the other in Blue Downs. Another security guard lost control of the company car he was driving when he was shot at by gangsters on Sagoloda Street in Philippi on Wednesday 24 April and crashed into a house.

David Bruce, a consultant at the Institute for Security Studies, said organised crime involving violent criminal groups has become entrenched in areas such as Nyanga, Philippi, and Khayelitsha. He noted that the biggest problem is the widespread availability of guns, which the police have “no proper strategy” to address.

Tactical response and security services were being provided to both staff and contractors in the Philippi area in the face of continuing threats.

In the last financial year, this cost R8.5 million. The government has a knack for misusing funds, so who knows how they may justify the cost-effectiveness of bringing gang members into the fold.

[source:groundup]