A man was shot outside the gates of a primary school on Friday, and pupils at the school have been sent home.
Nine shots were fired outside Sonderend Primary School in Manenberg following a night of gang shootings, and the victim, allegedly a gangster, was taken to hospital in a critical condition, witnesses said.
The shooting comes a little over a week after caretaker Graham Jaftha was shot outside the school. News that Jaftha had died at about midnight started circulating a few hours before the latest incident.
“We are not doing well. It’s very emotional and traumatising for the pupils, the staff and myself.
“Only the MEC can close a school officially, but we only have five pupils left today (those who could not arrange transport to their homes at such short notice),” said principal Leon Beukes.
Jaftha was shot last week while cycling to the school to lock up and set the alarm, Beukes said.
The shooting this morning happened just as pupils were arriving at the gates.
Bystanders told the Cape Argus that the shooting was the latest attack in the ongoing turf war between the Americans and the Hard Livings gangs. The shooters were allegedly members of the Americans gang, and the victim was a member of the Hard Livings gang.
“This has been going on a long time. We know that when these gangsters shoot, they sometimes just shoot at random. We are scared for our children’s lives, because two shootings have now happened right outside the school,” said Louise Sisher, the mother of three girls.
Manenberg Community Police Forum’s spokesman Kader Jacobs said: “The shooting began at around 11pm last night, and only ended at about 5.45am this morning.
“(It’s) a low-level war situation… ”
He believed the warring gangs were the Ugly Americans and the Hard Livings, defending turf at the south and north ends of Renoster Street.
Cape Argus
* If you use Gmail to read IOL's newsletters, note that Google is rolling out a new tabbed inbox that filters your mail into 5 separate tabs - Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums. IOL emails will probably be sent to the “Promotions” tab instead of the “Primary” tab. If you don't want it that way, drag the newsletter from the Promotions tab to the Primary tab. An alert will pop up. Click “yes” and your newsletters will continue to go to your Primary inbox.