Cape Town - A well-known Cape Flats activist says Premier Helen Zille and Mayor Patricia de Lille “have blood on their hands” after his son was shot and killed by gangsters while visiting a friend.
Sherwyn Stellenboom, 30, was gunned down in Boekenhout Street in Eastridge, Mitchells Plain on Monday.
He was the son of Sulyman Stellenboom, 54, a Mitchells Plain social activist and a member of the Ses’khona People’s Rights movement.
Sulyman is known for hosting protests against housing scams on the Cape Flats.
The dad says Sherwyn worked for Avis Car Rental at the Cape Town International Airport, and had been off for three days to spend with his five-year-old son, “who was his pride and joy”.
The two went to the movies on Monday, and afterwards Sherwyn dropped his son at home.
Dad Sulyman Stellenboom, 54, says he'll run a campaign. Picture: David Ritchie/ANA
He then went to visit a friend in Boekenhout Street, where he previously lived.
“There was an incident from the Spine Road side where two guys jumped over a wall and into someone’s yard and shot the dog in the leg,” Sulyman explains.
“My son was visiting his friend and had parked his car. He and two of the friends took a walk to the tuck shop and on their way back, one shot went off and hit my son in the neck.”
Sherwyn was rushed to Mitchells Plain Melomed Hospital where doctors placed him on life support but his brain was severely damaged.
Sulyman says doctors explained his son would be in a vegetative state if he survived.
The life support machines were switched off on Tuesday.
“He was a hard-working and independent young man who spoke of me and his mother and son to his friends all the time,” the heartbroken father says.
“He recently bought a house and had plans (for the future) and his son was his everything.”
The family is preparing for Sherwyn’s funeral on Saturday 18 November.
Sulyman says he wants to lay his son to rest before seeking justice.
He blames the DA leadership for the ongoing gang violence and bloodshed.
“Helen Zille and Patricia de Lille have blood on their hands as our people are being killed on a daily basis,” Sulyman says.
“I am not just going to leave this like this, I want to run a safety campaign after this. Three people were shot in the same street on Sunday.”
Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana confirmed a case of murder was being investigated.