Words: Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp
Hundreds of Hanover Park residents marched to the homes of alleged drug dealers and gangsters on Sunday afternoon. The march was organised by PAGAD G-force.
There was a heavy police presence as protesters moved from one home to the next, chanting ‘one gangster, one bullet’ and ‘death to the merchants, death to the mongrels’.
Protesters gathered outside a house, allegedly home to members of the Incredibly Gifted Bastards (IGB) gang. ‘We are here with a message,’ said one protester to a woman at the door. ‘Tell your people, the children that are being shot … it must come to an end.’
‘This is your final and last warning,’ said another protester. ‘Your brother is already in the ground … Your brother is dead from shooting children.’
A toddler was shot in Hanover Park on Wednesday and died the next day. Similar marches against gangsterism and drugs have also recently taken place in Stellenbosch and Mitchells Plain. Four murders were reported on Saturday in Mitchells Plain alone.
Hanover Park has long had issues with gang violence. In 2019, the army was deployed to help quell escalating gang violence.
Community activist Patricia Morris says that the police and councillors are doing nothing. She says that shootings in the community are constant, and it isn’t safe for children to walk to school or play outside. She says the community needs to stand up. ‘Sitting at home is not going to benefit you … we all have to rise to the occasion … Are we forever going to live in fear?’
Zainoneesa Rashid, PAGAD G-Force secretary, said the community had asked them to assist because they don’t have anyone else to turn to. ‘We’ve had enough and they need to step up … because it can’t go on like this … Our innocent kids can’t be killed,’ she said.
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Picture: Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp
