Cape Town - The family of a pregnant woman who was shot dead near her Manenberg home are asking where the army was when the young mother was killed.
On the same day, four armoured vehicles rolled into Table View, where two people where arrested in a abalone bust.
Mother of two Sadiqah Newman, 26, was shot eight times while walking on Thursday evening to a shop to buy electricity with a friend, who was also shot and wounded in the leg.
Tasneem Simons, 22, was killed three weeks ago in the same area when she was hit by a stray bullet while on her way to the washing line.
She was three-months pregnant.
On Saturday, Newman’s family gathered at her Tambo Village home to prepare for her funeral as relatives mourned.
Her father, Yassiem, said his youngest daughter had left the house shortly after 9.30pm before she was shot.
“I was lying down in my room when I heard gunshots. I just thought of my daughter and I ran outside. Then I ran to a neighbour, who informed me Sadiqah had been shot,” he said.
“And when I got to her she was still breathing, but you could see she was not going to make it, with four bullets to the head and two to the stomach.
“She tried to talk, but no sound came out. By the time my wife arrived our daughter was dying in my arms.”
The police Anti-Gang Unit has since arrested four men between the ages of 18 and 28 in connection with the incident.
According to information obtained by the police, the suspects were identified as members of a local gang.
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said the suspects were expected to appear in court tomorrow on charges of murder and attempted murder.
A tearful Nadeema Newman, 51, said she wanted the people responsible for her daughter’s murder to be brought to justice.
“I’ll never forget how her father had to pick up her brains on the ground, it’s an image that will haunt me.
“Her 6-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son keep asking me about their mother and I don’t know what to do or say to them.
“I feel angry. How could people shoot a woman, never mind a pregnant woman, in the stomach. Those are monsters, they cannot be classified as human.”
Her mother describe her as loving and outspoken, a young woman who loved her children and mothered everyone in the house.
“She was looking forward to this new baby, who would have been born on my birthday on October 1, she even had a named picked - Laika.
“Now they are both gone and I am angry. If the police could work around the clock and ensure justice for my daughter then I will find some peace. It won’t bring her back, but at least they won’t bring pain to any other family.
“I feel like the army is useless, wasting the taxpayers’ money while people continue to die because of these gangsters.
“Something needs to happen, the mothers of Manenberg need to stop hiding their gangster children’s guns and think they are protecting them only for them to hurt someone else. Enough is enough.”