Cape Town - The morning school run erupted into chaos in Rocklands, Mitchells Plain, on Monday when a parent was shot dead outside a high school and, in an unrelated shooting, a taxi driver was killed near a primary school a few metres away.
Gilianno Smith, 34, was on his way to meet the principal of Cedar Secondary School, where his son is in Grade 8, at about 7.50am when he was shot several times, allegedly by gunmen in a passing vehicle.
“It is believed that the deceased was standing on the street corner when unidentified suspects in a Toyota Quantum fired several shots fatally wounding the deceased,” police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said.
Smith’s death and the subsequent shooting of a taxi driver near Spine View Primary at about 8.30am have left pupils and parents traumatised.
Van Wyk said the taxi driver is believed to have stopped his minibus in Spine Road to pick up commuters when he was shot by an unidentified suspect.
Smith’s distraught mother, Veronica Smith, said he had been on his way to Cedar Secondary to meet the principal, David Charles, when the shooting occurred.
Mother’s Day was the last time she spoke to her son.
“I am very, very sad. He made me a card (for Mother’s Day) because he believed a bought one wouldn’t express the words he wanted to say to me.”
She said her grandson had walked ahead of his father and arrived at the school unaware of his father’s death.
“He was very sweet, I don’t know how or who could have done this… but this isn’t the first time that an incident has occurred in this area,” she said.
Smith’s mother went to the scene driven by “a feeling that her son was the one who had been shot”.
“When I arrived, there was blood everywhere. I ran to his side… I knew that he had been shot. I felt a great pain inside me when my other grandson told me of the shots that he had heard coming from the street.
“I already knew it was him,” she said.
School principal Charles told the Cape Argus that as the shot rang out, pupils could be seen running from the scene.
“I didn’t hear the gunshots myself but I saw the children come back to school very distressed. It’s an extremely traumatic incident, I know parents and children will need support especially with the stresses of exams happening at the moment.”
A parent, who wanted to remain anonymous, and lives near Cedar Secondary said: “I heard the shots… what are we supposed to do about the safety of our children if it happens again? We don’t have cars, we just walk our children to school and now we don’t even know if it is safe to do that anymore,” she said.
Western Cape Education Department spokesman Paddy Attwell said the shootings had traumatised pupils, parents and staff.
He said parents were dropping off children at the time of the shooting near Cedar Secondary.
“Our circuit staff and the school have identified specific learners needing counselling. Safe Schools has arranged counselling for the staff. Counsellors have also provided debriefing for four learners from Hillside Primary who were at a pedestrian crossing near Cedar Secondary at the time of the shooting.”
He said police were asked to patrol the areas.
Parents collected their children from Cedar Secondary by 11am. At Spine View some parents also collected their children while the remaining pupils had to remain in the schoolyard during breaks.
A group of disgruntled mothers told the Cape Argus that they were upset that they had not been informed of the shooting or that their children had not been released early.
One mother, Julia Davids, said: “I’m very angry! There was a shooting in two places along Spine Road, both very close to where my children attend school. It’s dangerous… we weren’t even told that we should come and pick them up.”
Riyaadh Najaar, chairman of the Progressive Principals’ Association and principal of Spine Road High School, expressed concern for the safety of teachers and pupils in the area.
“Our children are at the mercy of gangs and are traumatised. We feel so helpless.”
Anyone with information on the shootings can contact Detective Constable Welcome Nkenke on 079 154 5133.
Cape Argus