Cape Town - A Manenberg crime fighter who was threatened by gangsters about three months ago this week came face to face with leaders of the area’s most notorious gangs and begged them to work with her.
Manenberg was the centre of an intense gang war earlier this year, with shootings reported nearly every day.
In May, a major police anti-crime operation assisted by SA National Defence Force soldiers, was set up to stabilise the area, but shootings had escalated again afterwards.
At the start of July gang leaders agreed to stop fighting, and this week residents said there had been no shootings in Manenberg for two months.
In an unusual move to try to maintain the peace resident Roegchanda Pascoe, 40, of the Manenberg Safety Forum, met at least 30 senior members of rival gangs on Thursday.
The gangsters, some wearing peaked caps, chunky earrings and thick chains, sat in the local library listening to what she had to say.
Pascoe and other safety forum members pleaded with them to maintain the ceasefire.
“We’re giving you a chance, but you must dream for that chance yourself. Fight for the alternative… You’ve got power. Don’t use it to kill those around you,” she told them.
In May she was held at gunpoint by a gang member at her home, which is in Hard Livings territory.
She had also been threatened by other gangsters, and said it was because she had been speaking out.
This week Pascoe urged the gangsters to work with residents who were trying to improve living conditions in Manenberg. “We don’t have to fight with each other. We can fight for each other. Leave a legacy behind, but leave a good legacy,” she said.
Another member of the Manenberg Safety Forum, Errol Snipper, told the gangsters they played a major role in keeping the community safe.
“No mother ever gave birth to a gangster. What we have here are human beings who want to be treated as such.”
Some of the gangsters agreed with the safety forum members. Quinton Ghazu of the Clever Kids said the environment he grew up in had resulted in him choosing gangsterism. “It’s the lifestyle that’s been created for me… For me to survive I must move out.”
An Americans gang leader, who identified himself only as Ylas, said proof that the gang war had ended in Manenberg was the fact that rival gangsters were in the same room.
After the meeting, William “Billie” Adonis, 52, a Hard Livings member who joined the gang 23 years ago, told Weekend Argus he hoped gang violence would not erupt again. “We can’t go on like this. I’ve got children and I want them to grow up better than me.”
Saturday Argus