Peeking out from your cosy life in the ‘burbs, you might have realised that violence is rife in the Cape’s townships.

As it gets worse, more and more communities are taking action, and Philippi is one of them.

In September alone, 28 murders were allegedly committed in the Philippi ward. Amid a breakdown in trust between residents and police, residents called for Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to intervene.

While he took to Twitter on Thursday to show he cares – here – things soon got worse.

The area had seen mass bloodshed last week, and what you’re about to read from News24 is not pretty:

On Friday night, officers responded to scenes at the Marikana informal settlement where four people were shot dead inside a tavern, three inside a shack nearby, one outside the shack and two others were found lying dead between the shacks in the area.

One later died in hospital.

As a result, around “300 residents stormed the Philippi East police station on Saturday afternoon, demanding that action be taken”:

They speculated that the latest killings could have been in revenge for a mass shooting earlier this week, believed to be vigilante killings, or could perhaps be gang-related.

On Tuesday night, seven people were killed in the Nyanga cluster, under which Philippi falls.

According to a source, who was not authorised to speak to the media, five of the victims were stoned and stabbed to death at three of the crime scenes in Philippi East.

The source said there were allegations that a group of people wearing balaclavas had fetched the victims from their homes.

That’s when residents called on Mbalula for action. Before that, earlier in September, the charred bodies of three men were discovered in the settlement.

On Sunday, it was reported that a “special team of police detectives”  were continuing their investigation into the mass shooting of 11 people in Philippi.

Western Cape police spokesperson FC van Wyk said there were “no new developments to report concerning arrests for the shootings on Friday night”:

“Currently, it is very calm in [the] Marikana [informal settlement]. Our members are still in the area monitoring the situation.”

What the hell is going on?

[source:news24]