Carlo Petersen
“NO WE’RE not talking… the killers kill you.”
This was the response from Cashiefa Mathews, 50, who declined to be interviewed after police burst through her front door and raided her Manenberg home early yesterday.
Armed with automatic weapons, the specialised task team marched through her ground-floor flat and searched rooms before they found an illegal firearm.
Police arrested a minor.
Mathews would not be drawn to answer questions, saying she feared gangsters would murder her.
More than 10 people have been killed in alleged gang violence incidents in Manenberg in two weeks.
A fierce gang war between the Hard Livings and Americans, two notorious gangs on the Cape Flats, has the community living in fear.
While the 350-strong joint operation force covered a 1km2 section of Manenberg yesterday, residents expressed mixed feelings.
Police had identified a particular part of the township as a stronghold of the Americans, Clever Kids and Dixie Boys gangs.
“Oh this is a lovely sight to see,” said an elderly resident as she stepped out of her home just after 5am to see officers raiding flats in Grieta Court.
Just before dawn children were seen frantically darting off to school as they negotiated their way through a throng of police officers.
Not all residents welcomed the raid.
“What is the point of having them raid here one day and then later, when they’re gone, the gangs start shooting again,” said Inga Court resident Raul Solomons.
Deputy Provincial Commissioner Jeremy Vearey, who heads Operation Combat – a police operation targeting gangsterism in the province – said yesterday’s raid was a success.
“This operation focused on drugs, illegal firearms and other criminal activities and takes the form of a lockdown where SANDF soldiers are deployed to cordon off the area. Specialised task teams then go through the area, identifying houses and individuals deemed to be suspicious for searches and seizure,” Vearey said.
He said two 15-year-old boys and a 51-year-old man were arrested along with 12 others.
“Five suspects were arrested after being linked to three firearms which were seized. Nine others were arrested for drug-related charges.
“The numbers don’t really matter in terms of how many, but rather who the numbers are. These arrests are all linked to gangs, the Hard Livings and Dixie Boys. So, I am satisfied with the operation,” he said.
Manenberg Safety Forum chairperson Roegshanda Pascoe did not share Vearey’s sentiments..
“After the police and army left here I walked past some gangsters who said: ‘Nothing is going to stop us from shooting’,” Pascoe said.
“We don’t want people’s expectations to be raised by this. This political point-scoring must also stop.
“It has been said that (the) army was deployed here, but that is not the case. They were here to help police but they are gone now,” she said.