Durban - Wentworth residents are living in fear after two bystanders were shot when gunmen opened fire in a block of flats at the weekend.
Hime Street flat residents Clive Strydom, 48, and Kealyn Morrison, 19, had been socialising with friends and listening to music next to a BMW in a parking lot at a block of flats on Friday night when they were shot.
Residents heard gunshots - which some have blamed on rival drug-dealing gangs - and scrambled for safety.
Bullets struck Morrison on his left ankle and Strydom on the right ankle.
Both had entry and exit wounds.
Strydom said the BMW had shielded them from worse injuries, with at least 10 shots fired.
Many of the bullets struck the wall above the car while one of them struck the boot of the car. The injured were taken to hospital by a neighbour and discharged later that night.
Strydom, a tuck shop owner and part-time mechanical fitter, said on Sunday that opposing drug gangs often shot randomly in the flats.
“I limped to a nearby flat for help. Everyone had scattered into other people’s flats. The pain is immense and I can still hear the gunshots echo in my head. This injury will affect my job,” said Strydom, a father of two.
Unemployed Morrison said he had been chatting with his girlfriend when the shots rang out.
He realised he had been shot when he ran into a flat and felt a warm sensation on his ankle.
His aunt, Chevonne Morrison, said he had been shot last year in a similar incident.
In that incident the bullet had gone through his right arm and lodged in his chest. It could not be removed.
“We are living in fear and have to stay indoors. Some of the boys cannot leave the road and go to the shop or a recreational facility because of territorial boundaries by so-called gangsters. The men here will hopefully not retaliate for this incident. One wonders when it will end,” she said.
The shooting was believed to have started after an argument, said police spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker.
Naicker said no arrest had been made, but Wentworth police station was investigating a case of attempted murder.
However, Wentworth community activist, Desmond D’sa, said the shooting had been drug related. He had been on the balcony of one of the flats, visiting a friend, when the shots rang out between the flats.
“The area is not well lit. I could see the flash as the gun went off. We all looked for cover. There was chaos. More than 10 shots were fired.
“On June 16 we made two rival factions of boys make peace. It’s the lucrative drug trade that is corrupting everything. Drugs are being sold like sweets in a shop,” he said.
D’sa called on parents to expose drug dealing in the family and to tip police off about where the guns and drugs were being hidden.
“We provided a list of drug dealers, their homes and the cars they use to local police to no avail,” D’sa said.
Daily News