Gangs of pupils carrying pangas and knives are sowing terror in Khayelitsha, carrying out deadly attacks on innocent pupils and residents.
Police say a 16-year-old boy was killed recently, while others have escaped with stab wounds.
The situation is so bad that some parents are keeping their children at home or walking them to school and back every day.
Residents said boys as young as 13 from Kuyasa and Makhaya have been attacking one other with pangas for the past three weeks.
A principal said police were looking for five of his pupils in connection with stabbings in the area.
The fighting, residents said, was between the “Vatos” from Kuyasa and the “Vuras” from Makhaya.
Some say the recent attacks were part of a fight over a girl, while others say it was simply gangsterism.
Last week, Zubenathi Samela, 17, was stabbed twice in the head, and on his arm, near his Ngwamza Street home.
“More than 30 people came after me with pangas. I fell outside a house nearby and they stabbed me. I managed to grab a broken bottle and stabbed one who was holding me. They ran off and I ran off.”
Zubenathi was unsure of the reason for the attack, but added that it might have been because of a fight he had with another pupil.
He has not gone to school since, and his mother, Nokuzola Bulana, has stayed home from work to try to protect him.
“We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, children are dying. We are very angry, we need a solution. This is my children’s home, they are not going anywhere,” said Bulana.
Her neighbours fear so much for their children’s lives that they walk their children to and from school.
Police confirmed that the body of a 16-year-old boy was found on Kuyasa Street. “He sustained several stab wounds to his body and died on the scene. The circumstances surrounding the incident are unknown at this stage and no arrests have been made,” said spokesman November Filander.
On Bongeweni Street last week, a 30-year-old man had been stabbed by a group of youngsters, he said.
Police arrested 17 suspects, all of them under 18. They appeared in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court on a charge of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
They were all released into their parents’ custody.
Filander could not confirm other incidents in Kuyasa and Makhaya, but said stabbings had been reported in the greater Khayelitsha area this month.
He said the groups and their activities were not typical of gangsterism.
Meanwhile, some parents and their children said they had been forced to hide in their homes.
Nosisi Ntwanambi has sent her 17-year-old son, Xolisa Ntwanambi, to live with his sister because he was rumoured to be next on the Vura gang’s hit list.
“He didn’t go to school (Harry Gwala Secondary School) on Friday, that’s when people get attacked. We wake up every morning to walk our children to school. By the time the bell rings for the end of day we’re already waiting at the gate.”
Bulana and Ntwanambi are not the only parents who walk their children to and from school. There were at least six mothers waiting outside Siphamandla Secondary School on Thursday while a police van patrolled around the school.
“Our children aren’t safe anymore. Ever since this whole thing started, we have to be here every day,” said a mother, who declined to be named.
Parents, pupils and principals said the gangs usually operated from schools in the area.
Dominic Maruping, Sizimisele Secondary School principal, said a boy had been stabbed at the school during break time two weeks ago.
“He came when school started, wearing our school uniform. He tried to stab one of our pupils who, in turn, took his weapon and stabbed him with it.”
Some pupils told the Cape Argus the gangs used social networking sites to set up “hits” on other pupils.
Mvuyisi Mbotshelwa, Esangweni Senior Secondary’s principal, said five of his pupils were wanted by police in connection with stabbings.
“All five were not at school yesterday. (Other) parents have come to see me, saying their children are scared to come to school. As of last month, the rate of absenteeism has increased because children are scared of being attacked,” he said.
Police could not say how many stabbings in Khayelitsha were related to the teenage gangs.
Paddy Attwell, Western Cape Education Department spokesman, said department district officials 2802 - Cape Argus