Online Reporter
CAPE TOWN. – A violent weekend across Cape Flats communities has left at least 22 people dead and 16 critically injured.
This has prompted the African Congress for Change to call for a state of emergency and the reinstatement of the death penalty.
The deadly wave of shootings and stabbings struck multiple neighbourhoods between Friday and Sunday.
The hardest-hit areas include Mitchells Plain, Manenberg, Lavender Hill, Delft, Bonteheuwel, Seawinds, Elsies River, Kraaifontein and Philippi.
A.C.C. president Masizole Mnqasela said communities were “under siege.”
“Gang violence has escalated beyond the capacity of normal policing. The state must act before communities collapse under fear,” Mnqasela said.
The violence spiked across the peninsula in a series of unrelated attacks.
In Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, two people were shot and one killed on Friday night.
The same evening, a husband and wife were ambushed and shot at a fuel station in Manenberg, the wife later succumbed to her injuries.
On Saturday, a 19-year-old was shot dead in Lavender Hill’s Aspeling Court, while a woman was gunned down in Clarke Estate, Elsies River.
In Delft, another man was found shot dead in Aerobat Road.
By Sunday, the violence had spread to the West Coast when a man was shot dead in Malmesbury. In Bonteheuwel, a father was stabbed to death by his son in Almond Street.
In Lotus River, five people were shot, leaving one dead and four in critical condition. Other shootings were recorded in Beacon Valley, Heideveld, Maitland and Eastridge.
“These incidents clearly show that the region is under siege,” Mnqasela said. – IOL
Mathew Masinge