Police were called to Roosendal in Delft after two men were found with gunshot wounds to their heads.
|||Cape Town - Flaring gang violence in Delft is stretching police resources.
In the most recent incident police were called to Sterretjie Crescent in Roosendal early on Tuesday when two murdered men were found with gunshot wounds to their heads.
By late on Tuesday afternoon, police could only confirm that two men aged 23 and 28 had been shot and killed. Provincial police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut said the shootings were being investigated.
Relatives were too distraught to talk to the media on Tuesday.
The double murder follows the death of two men on Saturday and a taxi shooting on Friday.
Some residents in Delft South said an internal dispute between two 28s gang leaders appeared to be behind the violence.
Delft Community Policing Forum chairman Reggie Maart said that often when police were trying to focus attention on an area, the problem would shift to a different part of Delft. “We can’t be everywhere at the same time,” Maart said. He commended the police for using their limited resources as best they could. “We have tried our utmost to be visible.”
MEC for Community Safety Dan Plato said gang violence had been flaring across the province - particularly in Atlantis, Kraaifontein and Mitchells Plain. He had discussed his concerns with provincial police commissioner General Arno Lamoer.
*
Two weeks ago, a young couple, Jarryd Manuel, 18, and his girlfriend, Megan Hendricks, 19, were shot outside Manuel’s mother’s home in Delft. At the time residents marched from the Manuel home to the Hendricks residence with placards calling for an “end to the violence”.
* On Friday, a taxi shooting resulted in five people being wounded, one of whom died in hospital, Maart said.
* On Saturday, while Maart had been entering the church at Hendricks’s funeral, he had heard news of another double murder in Delft South, where two men were shot dead in separate shootings.
Police found the body of an unidentified 25-year-old man who had been shot in the head and back in Wallace Street.
A short while later 21-year-old Lesley Saul was found shot in the head in Block Street.
Following the shootings in Delft South a task team was set up and 16 people were arrested.
Maart said he was shocked at the number of young people taken into custody, including four teenagers. “While police were busy on the scene a young boy of 15 came to the scene with a firearm,” he said.
natasha.prince@inl.co.za
Cape Argus