Four males were found with gunshot wounds in Kensington. In response to mass shootings linked to gang violence and extortion, civil rights organisations and political parties are calling for a Provincial State of Disaster. This comes as Parliament signs off on Premier Alan Winde’s R2.6 million annual package.
Just last week, as schools reopened , the Cape Crime Crisis Coalition (C4) renewed its call for a state of disaster after local government MEC Anton Bredell announced that he planned to ask Cabinet to declare ongoing fires and water challenges a natural disaster. The police’s Serious and Violent Crime Unit was called to two separate crime scenes on Tuesday morning, where six lives were claimed and two others left wounded. Police Commissioner Thembisile Patekile said despite 38,000 firearms being confiscated in the past five years, shootings continued.
Police spokesperson Colonel Andre Traut explained that police were responding to a shooting at 2:50 am in Melck Street, Ndabeni yesterday. Traut said Maitland police were alerted by a passer-by who reported a dog lying in a pool of blood. “Upon responding, members discovered three women aged between 20 and 52, and an adult male, inside an informal dwelling.
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All four victims sustained fatal gunshot wounds and were declared deceased on the scene by medical personnel,” Traut detailed. At the second scene, just five minutes later, police responded to a shooting at the Maitland cemetery in Voortrekker Road, Kensington. Four males were found with gunshot wounds.
Two men, aged 35 and 36, were declared deceased on the scene, while two others, aged 31 and 32, were transported to hospital. Traut said the motive for this attack is believed to be gang-related. Local ward councillor Cheslyn Steenberg said he is exploring all avenues to put an end to the gun violence in the community: “I support the call for a provincial state of disaster to be declared for the gang violence that we are seeing. Local ward councillor Cheslyn Steenberg said he is exploring all avenues to put an end to the gun violence in the community
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