Children killed in gangs' drug turf wars

The wave of gang warfare on the Cape Flats follows the recent release of several prominent gangsters from prison, who are now out to settle old scores with rivals and retake their turf.

Police said these recently-released gangsters were fighting to regain control of lost turf, and to gain control of new areas so they can have a bigger market for incoming drug shipments.

According to police sources, gangs are positioning themselves to get a bigger slice of these drugs, and the resulting war has spread across the Cape Flats.

The gang warfare has cost the lives of four children in the past week alone. Another was shot but survived.

And since the beginning of this year, dozens of gangsters have been shot dead.

In an incident on Friday, alleged Fancy Kids leader Jonathan Peterson, 19, was shot dead in Atlantis, and two henchmen were injured.

Peterson and two friends were standing in front of a block of flats, Eagles Nest in Buuting Road, when a vehicle pulled up next to them. Two men emerged from the vehicle and shot at Peterson and his friends.

Peterson was fatally wounded and died on the scene. The gunmen fled in the unidentified vehicle.

Police spokesperson Riaan Pool said that a 19-year-old member of a rival gang was arrested by police in Atlantis within hours of the incident. A firearm was confiscated.

Jonathan Peterson's brother Godfrey Peterson, allegedly of the Hard Livings gang, and another alleged top gangster known as Yusuf, were then both shot dead in a drive-by shooting in Brooklyn at 3am on Sunday.

Gang fights have erupted at several prisons in the past few weeks, particularly at Pollsmoor Prison where 20 inmates were wounded during a recent battle.

Two weeks ago another fight broke out in the prison's juvenile section where 14 youngsters were wounded. Wardens believe these fights were connected to the gang wars outside the prison.

Now the police's top brass are holding a workshop this week at an undisclosed venue to map out a strategy on how to combat the gang wars.

Anti-crime operations were started on Thursday night, focussing on specific Cape Flats hotspot areas.

Western Cape police spokesperson Ettienne Terblanche said that Mitchells Plain, Bishop Lavis, Bonteheuwel, Steenberg and Manenberg were targeted.

Three-hundred-and-eighty members of the police, army, City Police and local law enforcement officers took part in the operation.

Shortly after the shooting incident during which Desmone Smith, 10, was killed on Thursday, "maximum forces were deployed in the Kalksteenfontein area where the gang fights took place".

Terblanche said that four people, aged between 14 and 24, all linked to the shooting incident, were arrested.

They were due to appear in the Goodwood magistrate's court on Monday.

He said that detectives were also looking for more suspects in connection with the murder.

During the weekend's operation, 26 suspects were arrested for various crimes including murder, rape and other violent crimes.

In addition, police investigators arrested 201 crime suspects wanted in connection with other serious crimes.

Terblanche said members taking part in the operations arrested an alleged member of the Americans gang on Friday at 11.30pm in Bishop Lavis.

The man allegedly shot at police who stopped him on the corner of Planet and Sun roads.

Police returned fire after shooting two warning shots into the ground. The 21-year-old man was arrested.

Terblanche said: "On Friday and Saturday we concentrated mostly on high police visibility which is proving effective to stabilise outbreaks of gang violence.

"Since Friday morning there were no major gang-related incidents in the areas targeted by our operations.

"The operations will continue and the public will be updated on our progress."

Meanwhile, former gang bosses Rashied Staggie - out on bail pending an appeal against a life sentence for rape - and Ivan Waldeck, went on a tour of the Cape Flats, holding two meetings in Elsies River on Saturday, where they spoke to members of the 26s and 28s gangs.

Although no peace treaties could be brokered, Waldeck told the Cape Argus that their efforts would continue on Monday and for the rest of the week.

Waldeck said: "We are going to Bonteheuwel and other areas this week. Not one of these gangsters wants to shoot children."

The government, he said, had several projects in place, but they were not working.

"The government keeps on saying that crime and violence are under control, but that's not true," he said.

Staggie said: "God is speaking to communities and the government to do something, communities from where 80 percent of gangsters emerge."

He said that stability was urgently needed within neighbourhoods so that children could freely go to school.

Staggie, Waldeck and other gangsters claiming to be reformed, vowed at the weekend to continue to try to speak to all the gangs on the Cape Flats.