Cape Town -
Police tightened their grip on Manenberg this week, raiding buildings and searching residents in the wake of a spate of gang shootings.
A man was shot in the head on Thursday and died in hospital.
On Friday, police, including metro police officers, descended on Manenberg, one of a number of areas around the province that was caught up in gang warfare.
Officers drove around, some in unmarked vehicles, and stopped to search homes, a virtually empty block of flats and young men carrying bags.
Officers found a discarded brown paper bag containing drugs including mandrax.
As they frisked young men in the courtyard outside a block of flats, another officer stood with binoculars to spot if anyone was trying to attack the police.
Friday’s police operation came after a man was shot in the head. A Weekend Argus team was in Manenberg when the shooting took place.
We spent 96 minutes in Manenberg, and this is what we experienced: Weekend Argus arrived in the area at 11.07am, but decided to leave the street where we hoped to conduct an interview because a resident warned: “Hulle skiet daar” (They’re shooting there).
No police were visible along the route the team took out of Manenberg and residents were standing outside their homes, looking to see where the shooting was happening.
Toddlers sat in doorways.
Men wearing tracksuits and T-shirts that exposed tattoos on their arms loitered on dusty street corners, the names of gangs scrawled on walls near them.
At 11.36am a police van moved along a street near to where the shooting was taking place. The Weekend Argus team returned to the area at 11.50am and when they arrived, groups of residents lined the street where police vehicles were parked. More police and metro vehicles arrive soon afterwards.
“I had to run and get my two little children from school because of the shooting. It always happens. Help us,” implores a pregnant woman, gripping the hands of her two daughters.
Other residents, gathered on the corner of a street, shouted that people were being shot daily in Manenberg, but some men standing among them warned them to keep quiet.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, so just shut up,” one man shouted.
More police officers arrived at the scene, and at one point, officers grabbed the Weekend Argus photographer.
One shouted at him, holding on to the waistband of his pants, to prevent him from walking.
When the reporter walked up to them, her cellphone in her hand trying to record what was happening, an officer grabbed the back of her top saying he would take both to the police station.
The matter was sorted out, as the Weekend Argus team explained what they were doing in the area.
The police apologised, repeatedly saying “the situation is just so tense”.
Residents started shouting at officers and members of a specialised police unit arrived – one officer in a balaclava held a pistol.
Another officer, clad in protective gear, held what appeared to be a machine gun. An ambulance left the scene and some of the police officers also started leaving at 11.57am.
By 12.04pm a number of the officers had left and one woman shouted at them: “Hulle sal weer kom skiet” (They’re going to come shoot again).”
At 12.07pm the last police van left the scene and residents milled around.
The Weekend Argus left the area and at 12.20pm saw a man, with a bleeding mouth, walking towards the station near Manenberg.
At 12.36pm an unmarked vehicle suddenly stopped in a main road just outside of Manenberg.
A policeman jumped out and started searching a man clutching a rucksack.
After frisking him the police drove off.
A man outside a block of flats stood in a corner behind a vibracrete wall and peered over it.
At 12.43pm another man walked up to him and pointed to the car the Weekend Argus team was in.
The two men walked towards the car and the team left Manenberg.
- Saturday Argus