As police and community leaders launched an initiative to “silence the guns” in Manenberg on Saturday, a 30-year-old woman was shot and killed in a drive-by attack.  

The shooting occurred on 5th Street at about 11:15 am, close to Phoenix Secondary School – a kilometre away from the venue for the Western Cape police board’s anti-gun campaign launch.

Western Cape police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm Pojie said: “Manenberg SAPS registered a murder case for investigation after a 30-year-old woman was shot and fatally wounded during a drive-by shooting this morning, Saturday, 9 August 2025, at about 11:15am in 5th Street, Heideveld. The circumstances and motive form part of the continued investigation. The suspects are yet to be identified and apprehended.”

Police have appealed to anyone with information to contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111 or use the MySAPS mobile application.

Manenberg Community Police Forum deputy chairperson Vanessa Adriaanse said the shooting took place while community members, mostly women, were gathered for the campaign launch in honour of Women’s Day.

“This is devastating, to think that we were launching the silencing the guns campaign where we mostly invited females because it’s Women’s Day. We wanted to acknowledge the women on the Cape Flats. We received a call while at the event that they had just shot and killed a female,” she said.

She said they rushed to the scene. “How abnormal can our community become that we are standing over the body of the 30-year-old woman. Our hearts are bleeding. What is happening to women? What must we do?”

Adriaanse said the shooting was believed to be a targeted hit. “According to her family, she was a witness in a gang-related case. That might be the reason she was shot and killed.”

Nyanga CPF sub-district spokesperson Reggie Maart said the event formed part of a broader strategy to tackle firearm-related murders in hotspot areas.

“I am deployed in one of the problematic clusters which garners 39% of gun violence incidents in the province,” he said.

“This is an initiative we decided on after a meeting with station commanders about the violent crimes happening in our communities where the weapon of choice was mostly the gun. We celebrated Women’s Day at the launch – how many women have lost their sons and husbands through a gun? We are silencing that weapon of choice.”

Maart said the initiative would expand to other police stations and rely on close cooperation between communities and law enforcement.

City of Cape Town mayoral committee member for Safety and Security Alderman JP Smith said the shooting highlighted the crisis of illegal firearms in Cape Town.

He said that while the city’s enforcement agencies were on track to recover between 450 and 500 illegal guns this year, up from about 70 a year in the past, the supply of weapons and ammunition continued.

“In the last three and a half years, we’ve removed just over 1,700 guns from the streets. And yet in one case, we caught the same suspect twice with illegal guns just weeks apart in Gugulethu. You must start asking: where is all this coming from? Where is the ammunition coming from? There is a constant supply,” he said.

Smith said while community tip-offs and gunshot detection technology were helping, the conviction rate for illegal firearm possession remained below 5 per cent, meaning many offenders returned to the streets within weeks.

“That should be a slam-dunk case. We catch you with an illegal gun, you should not be on the street after that. But with such a low conviction rate, way too many of those offenders are out shooting again,” he said.

Smith repeated the City’s call for the national government to devolve investigative and crime intelligence powers to provincial or local authorities.

“First prize is that the control of SAPS is devolved to provincial or local control. That is possible in law. We are capable. We have the command-and-control ability, we have invested in systems for accountability and transparency. Give us control – or at least give our staff the powers to investigate the 400-plus firearm cases where we’ve made arrests, and to conduct our own ballistics and crime intelligence,” he said.

He said that without shutting down supply lines, including ammunition sources, the situation would not change.

Western Cape Deputy provincial police commissioner Luyanda Damoyi said: “We have noticed that the circulation of guns in this area is tremendous. Many of the firearms currently in circulation were once legally owned, but after certain incidents involving the owners, such as robberies at their homes, they became illegal. Some have been lost by security forces or stolen from security companies, and others from the South African Police Service.

“What we are doing now is taking measures to address this. We are regularly inspecting firearm licences held by owners. One area of concern is deceased estates. For example, if someone owned three firearms and then died, their family might not report this to the police. We have identified 1,502 firearms linked to deceased owners, and we are visiting those addresses. We have already recovered a number of weapons in different provinces.

“We are also raising awareness. Some families are simply not aware they are required to hand in these firearms, but once we engage with them, they often cooperate. In many cases, they are willing to surrender the weapons.”

mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za 

Source link