Ocean View has become one of the latest areas in Cape Town to experience a flare-up in drug-related violence.
|||Cape Town - Ocean View has become one of the latest areas in the province to experience a flare-up in drug-related violence with an attack by residents, at the weekend, on an alleged dealer's house, the police say.
During the incident, sparked by a shooting, police vehicles were damaged and eight people were arrested for public violence.
They are expected to appear in the Simon's Town Magistrate's Court on Monday.
Other areas which have recently experienced a flare-up in violence include Steenberg, Manenberg and Mitchells Plain with reports of shots being fired in both Manenberg and Mitchells Plain on Sunday.
In the Ocean View attack, police spokesman Tembinkosi Kinana said a 32-year-old man had been shot early on Saturday by an unidentified man in Ivory Court and rushed to hospital in a serious condition.
"The motive for his attack is being investigated by the police," Kinana said. An attempted murder case was being investigated.
Kinana said following the shooting, residents had gone to a house in Draco Street where they believed the suspected shooter, an alleged drug lord, lived.
"In what was suspected to be a revenge attack on this house, the community threw stones at the house, broke… boats and smashed the car and the roof of the house," he said.
Police officers had to evacuate the family from the house. As they were doing so, Kinana said, the residents had turned on them.
The tyres of about five police vehicles were damaged.
Eight people were arrested. The police were monitoring the area.
On Monday in Manenberg, where are least four people have been murdered recently, a 44-year-old resident was wounded as he arrived home.
Kinana said three men approached the resident as he walked through his front gate.
The man had asked what they wanted.
"Without any warning one of the three males pulled out a firearm and fired several shots at him, hitting him in the left shoulder and grazing his forehead," Kinana said.
The men then ran off.
Earlier this month Manenberg Community Police Forum (CPF) spokesman Kader Jacobs said the imminent release of notorious gang leader Rashied Staggie appeared to be linked to some of the violence.
Staggie, who has served 10 years of his 15-year jail sentence, and who according to court papers admitted to being the leader of the Hard Livings gang, is to be let out on day-parole from September 24.
On Sunday Mitchells Plain community police forum spokesman Abie Isaacs said one resident had been murdered in Tafelsig and another in Beacon Valley last week.
He said there were also reports of gunshots in Mitchells Plain on Sunday.
Isaacs said most of the incidents reported were possibly gang related.
Steenberg CPF spokesman Kevin Southgate said last week there had been four shootings in the area. Two people were killed.
Southgate said it appeared "a third economy" was at the root of the violence.
He explained this third economy was "totally unregulated" and had to do with the buying and selling of illegal substances, including drugs.
Southgate said the reasons behind shootings in the area boiled down to money and drug "turf".
Violence, linked to gangs and drugs, has flared up in the following areas:
* Ocean View: One wounded and scores of residents turn on an alleged drug lord at the weekend. Police spokesman Tembinkosi Kinana said: "A strong police presence will remain in the area to deal with any situation which may arise, and to maintain law and order. The situation currently can be described as under control, however it will be closely monitored to detect any possible unrest."
* Mitchells Plain: Two murdered in a week. Community Police Forum (CPF) spokesman Abie Isaacs said: "From our side most of these issues can possibly be gang related."
* Steenberg: Two murdered in a week. CPF spokesman Kevin Southgate said: "We've had ongoing violence for the past couple of months… At the end of the day the shootings are all about drug turf."
* Manenberg: At least four people recently killed. CPF spokesman Kader Jacobs said: "There's also inter-gang rivalry in terms of the release of (Hard Livings gangster Rashied) Staggie."
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
Cape Times