As a Cape Times reporter and photographer drive through the streets of Manenberg, they quickly realise something is amiss.
|||Cape Town - As Brenton Geach and I drive through the streets of Manenberg, we realise something is amiss. It is eerily quiet.
Residents gather in small groups along the grey, dusty pavements, all facing in the same direction.
Some cover their mouths. Others shield their eyes, gazing into the distance.
The few who turn to look at us, the only motorists in the area, frown.
Manenberg has experienced a recent flare-up in gang violence, with shootings being reported virtually every day.
This has resulted in police operations being stepped up in the area.
An armoured police vehicle is stationed at the end of one street and a police car jammed full of officers stands at an entrance to another street.
A few minutes later, at 11.25am, we park opposite a field stretching out alongside Silverstream High School.
At least six police vans are parked in a street opposite the field and residents are gathered there, outside a block of flats.
A few minutes later, we continue our drive through the streets, but by 11.30am it seems too many people have congregated in the streets.
Although we can see the gathering of six police vans, something is clearly up.
We decide to leave. As the photographer accelerates along a road three young men run across it, just metres from us.
One, wearing a bright yellow top, clutches a gun to his side and as he runs, keeps his head down low, quickly darting glances in either direction.
A second man runs alongside him, his hand tucked inside his trousers.
He is obviously concealing something in his clothing.
The trio run past a block of flats and then turn down a side street, disappearing from view.
We watch in silence until they are out of sight, then I instruct the photographer to leave the area.
“Get out. Get out now,” I say.
We return to park opposite the field at which we stopped at earlier.
A group is accumulating outside a home on the opposite side of the field.
The group starts unfolding a big flag - an American flag.
We realise we may be watching gangsters from the so-called Americans grouping.
The band holding the flag take a few steps forward. Suddenly the flag crumples and the group scatter.
The young men run in different directions.
Shots pierce the still air. Geach counts at least 10 shots.
The high school playground, barely 50m from where the groups had gathered, suddenly looks deserted.
I glance at my watch. It is only 11.41am.
A few residents gather to find out what is happening.
“Daar skiet hulle weer (There, they’re shooting again),” one woman casually points out.
She explains that the Hard Livings are shooting at their rivals, the Americans, who have angered the Hard Livings by displaying the flag.
“Ag, it happens all the time,” she intones.
“The shooter, you must see him. He’s 25, but he’s this short,” the woman says, indicating his height by tapping her shoulder.
At 12.06pm we see police vehicles drive down the street where the flag was unfurled.
By now, the area is empty.
As we drive away, residents start gathering opposite the field again and we see scores of school pupils leaving Silverstream High.
It’s only 12.10pm, so we stop to ask why.
A girl nonchalantly says they have been sent home early because of the shooting.
She shrugs and walks away.
Late on Wednesday night a man was shot on the field alongside Silverstream High.
Police spokesman FC van Wyk said the 48-year-old was wounded, but he did not know the details of the man’s injuries.
By the time the police arrived, residents had taken the man to the GF Jooste Hospital.
Police went to the hospital to investigate, Van Wyk said.
He did not yet have the name of the man.
* Caryn Dolley reporting on her experiences in Manenberg yesterday.
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
Cape Times