A Group of concerned residents on the Cape Flats have come together on social media to fight gangsterism.

Sunday Times

 

They set up a Facebook page called Cathkin Gangwatch late last year. But it soon became clear a much wider group was needed.

So Cathkin - a part of Heideveld, a suburb flanked by other gang hotspots such as Athlone, Bonteheuwel and Manenberg - became the Manenberg Gang Watch.

Four months later there are 15 different Gang Watch pages, each representing areas including Lavender Hill, Steenberg, Hanover Park, Mitchells Plain, Kensington and Facreton where gang violence is rife. The group has been so successful that it has spread to Port Elizabeth's Helenvale, also known as Katanga, a notorious area.

The group shares up-to-the-minute information on shootings, robberies in progress, gang members gathering at certain spots, and other suspicious activity.

Residents post in real time: who is involved, what types of firearms they have; assault rifles are not uncommon.

Manenberg Gang Watch has received more than 100000 visitors since January.

"The people of the Cape Flats are screaming for help and no one seems to hear," one of the founders told the Sunday Times. Members wish to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. The gangs have little tolerance for those who compromise their hold over the communities.

"By reporting each and every incident, whether it is missing persons, robberies, hijackings or stolen cars, we are putting huge pressure on the gangs.

"They are not happy and if they know who we are, they will come for us, for sure," the member said.

Such fear is justified. On Easter Monday, a member of the Manenberg Community Safety Forum, Abubakr Lewis, was shot in the leg by gangsters moments before the start of a peace march through the streets of the gang-infested community.

The march followed weeks of terror suffered by the community because of running gun battles between the Americans, the Dixie Boys and the Hard Living gangs.

Apart from warning residents of impending shootings and other suspicious activities, members can also send direct messages to the pages.

"These messages are treated as highly confidential and get passed on to the relevant police station or social welfare office," he said.

"The group never imagined we would reach so many people so soon."

The group has also developed a cellphone app that links all the gang pages.

 

Facebook page tracks Manenberg violence

January 11 2015 at 12:26pm 
By Caryn Dolley Comment on this story

 

FACEBOOK

Facebook page documents criminal activity in Manenberg.

Cape Town - The escalating gang violence in Manenberg is being documented in graphic detail on Facebook, including photographs of a murdered man and his apparent shooters.

This has fuelled a heated debate about whether such posts could stoke the violence.

A number of shootings were reported in the area this week, and, at one stage, gangsters barricaded roads to prevent police from entering the war-torn area.

Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut confirmed sporadic shootings in the area, but said that, contrary to some media reports, it was adequately policed.

He said rival gangsters had shot at one another on Thursday.

Police afterwards recovered 20 spent cartridges and confiscated two firearms.

“It is suspected that the recent incidents are linked to the murder of a 28-year-old man on Sunday... and although violence of this nature is a cause for concern, Manenberg is not in the control of gangsters,” Traut said.

He confirmed tyres had been set alight at a traffic circle on Tuesday.

“But this has not deterred members from patrolling the Manenberg area,” Traut said.

Gang shootings in the suburb are being detailed on the Facebook page, “Manenberg gangwatch”, which almost 4 300 users have “liked”.

Residents are encouraged to send tip offs and updates to the page’s administrator.

Posts on the page are detailed and graphic.

About a week ago, a photograph showing the bloodied body of a man slumped in his car was posted on the page. An accompanying post identified the man by name and claimed he was a Hard Livings gangster.

A hundred people “liked” the post about the shot man. But some social media users have commented that posting the photograph was disrespectful.

On Monday, a head-and-shoulders photograph of a man identified as a shooter in the Hard Livings gang, was also posted, and dozens of people reacted.

One resident posted that he was worried the man in the photograph would be alerted to the post; another pointed out that the man in the photograph could have been wrongly identified.

A third resident said it was their “bro” in the photograph and added that a number of lives had been put in danger because of it.

Another was full of praise: “Well done Manenberg, name and shame these b@stards there is no other words to use they are killing innocent people.”

In another instance, a man, named in a post, was identified as a JFK gang member who had been involved in a shooting.

This week the Manenberg resident who created the Facebook page, who declined to be named because he feared for his safety, explained the reasoning behind it.

“I started this page because I feel that the authorities just (regard crime in) our place, especially the gang fights, like a fire, waiting till everything burns out. There is never a long-term solution,” the resident said.

“I don’t think this page fuels any gang violence. The reason for fighting is far beyond this… It’s about controlling parts of Manenberg.”

The resident said the page was exposing crime and that thousands of people had visited it.

“I put our place on the map. Never can it be (said) that our place is just forgotten. People all over the world now know what’s happening here. Even government institutions become involved because they see the reality,” the resident said.

The resident said police were trying to clamp down on violence in Manenberg, but that the gangsters outnumbered the police officers.

Posts on the page this week showed the extent of shootings in the area.

On Tuesday, for instance, the following posts were made:

* 8.38am: “THERE ARE A FEW MAJOR REVENGE ATTACKS PLANNED FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS AND THE PEOPLE IN MANENBERG R IN GRAVE DANGER.”

* 12.58pm: “Gunfire ringing out in schieldt road, hard livings opening fire on clever kids.”

* 1.04pm: “Dixie boys returning fire coming out with force.”

* 5.12pm: “It’s raining bullets here down in schieldt road.”

* 7.53pm: “Metro Police out in full force.”

* 11.22pm: “It’s war in schieldt road, where is the police when they is supposed to be here.”

* 11.24pm: “More shots repeatedly going off, it’s raining bullets here clever kids, ghetto’s Dixie boys and hard livings clashing, please gold help, just hope the innocent is off the roads.”

* 11.25pm: “Rapid gunfire is ringing out by schieldt road, it’s dark so all u can see is shadows 

 

GOVERNMENT DEAF TO SCREAMS FOR HELP AGAINST GANGS

COPE POLITICAL PARTY
 
Congress of the People applauds the outstanding community initiative to set up a Gangwatch in the Cape Flats. Begun by the Heideveld community, the idea is attracting other communities in other parts of the country as well.
 
The Sunday Times reported that these gangwatch groups that communities were setting up, were sharing up-to-the-minute information on Facebook on shootings, robberies in progress and the gathering of gang members at certain spots. Even so, one of the founders is perplexed that no one seems to be hearing the screams of the people of the Cape Flats for help. Neither is anyone in authority seeing their postings on Facebook.
 
Congress of the People implicitly believes that police are as effective as the information they get from communities. Now that such information is readily forthcoming in real time, by the minute in fact, is the South African police service unable to log into Facebook and respond to the information just as quickly as it appears? That is the question we are asking.
 
A police service that is unable to use ICT is in a time warp. We need young officers who are techno-savvy to combat gangs with the help of community members using social media. We need a modern and capable police service that meets the expectations of the people in the times in which we live. We need a police service that impresses on the country that rule of law certainly obtains in our country and that the police are ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. That is what the nation wants.
 
COPE calls on the Minister of Police as well as the President to remove their earmuffs and listen to the peoples’ screams for helps.

 

 

GOVERNMENT DEAF TO SCREAMS FOR HELP AGAINST GANGSApril 26, 2015 | Dennis Bloem