On Wednesday night, the greater Cape Town area exploded into violence on a scale eclipsing the political turmoil of 1985-86. Church halls, creches and private homes were turned into emergency hospitals as doctors and health workers treated hundreds of injured. Police have challenged the figure of 23 dead – given early yesterday by Archbishop Desmond Tutu – but confirmed 12 deaths. A prominent law firm, Essa Moosa and Associates, said that witnesses and activists told of 25 deaths.
Weekly Mail has obtained the names of 14 dead, and has reason to believe that there are at least nine others. As preparations got underway late yesterday for the first of what will become a succession of funerals, running battles between civilians and police continued in several Cape Flats townships. Injured men, women and children were ferried to emergency clinics by community workers.
Yasmin Moolla, a member of the South African Health Workers’ Congress who assisted at a clinic in Steenberg, south of Cape Town, said: ”I thought I was watching a movie. It was horrific. You read about these things but you don’t believe that adults can do this to children.” She and other members of the team treated about 50 children between 5pm and 11 pm on Wednesday night. The children had been teargassed, shot at with rubber bullets, birdshot · and buckshot. Earlier she had watched police line up and fire at children without warning. She said police began using buckshot from about 10pm.
A 14-year-old who had been shot in his abdomen and chest, was brought in. Most of the children had facial injuries. ”It looked as if the cops had aimed straight for their faces.” She said some of the children had been toyi-toying earlier and taunting the cops by shouting ”Viva MDM!” and ”Viva Cosatu!” but that many were just on their way home or watching from the sidelines. Reverend Jan de Waal, who was at the Ned Geref Sendingkerk at Lavender Hill, which was turned into a makeshift hospital, said between 50 and 60 people treated ”for birdshot wounds initially and buckshot wounds later. ”There were a lot of children and people who were returning home from work and were shot as they were walking home,” he said. ”Children sitting on the staircases of their homes were also shot,” he said. ”It looked like a battlefield.” A woman in her 60s had a heart attack after the trauma of the evening and died before an ambulance arrived, he said.
Faghied Johnson, of the Manenberg Advice Office, said more than 100 people had been reported injured by late Thursday afternoon. ”Manenberg was like a war zone,” he said. There were barricades on ”every street corner”, even in the back streets, and one 100m from the police station in Duinefontein Road. People were teargassed, shot with birdshot and later, buckshot. ”The cops were shooting recklessly. They were getting out of their Casspirs and vans and aiming at people.”
He said one young policeman, aged about 23, was ”acting like Rambo”, shooting at ”anything and everyone”. ”He then hit one woman over the head with a sjambok but she turned and beat him. Other women joined her and also beat him. He was bleeding from the mouth and cops had to rush to his aid.” People were stoning police vehicles continuously. ”The cops would take action and then later the people would just come back. 11 was never-ending.” He described the situation in Manenberg yesterday as ”tense”. Barricades were still burning.
Dr Errol Holland, who manned an emergency clinic in a Manenberg church, said he treated extensive birdshot injuries, inflicted mostly on youths aged between 14 and 19. ”What was disturbing is that the concentration of the pellets – which normally spray out on discharge – indicated that many of those injured were shot at close range,” he said. At least 100 people were treated for injuries. in Mitchells Plain yesterday, an advice office worker said the situation was tense. ”Barricades are burning and students are being picked up.” She said more than 100 people appeared yesterday morning in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court in connection with public violence charges.
Pedro Page, 18, of Fairmount Senior Secondary School was shot on Wednesday night in Parkwood Estate. He was yesterday reported to be in a critical condition in Victoria Hospital. Advice office workers monitoring the situation reported about 12 people injured in Grassy Park and Lotus River. In Mitchells Plain last night there were scores of blazing barricades and a large security force presence. Teargas canisters glowed in red arcs across the night sky. Reverend Trevor Steyn, of St Mark’s Anglican Church in Lavender Hill, said South African Defence Force troops entered the township early on Wednesday.
The day started ”very quietly” but in the afternoon a 15-year-old was arrested in connection with public violence charges. Soon afterwards barricades went up. ”As night fell police started shooting teargas, birdshot, buckshot and rubber bullets,” he said. About 43 people were treated in an emergency clinic and 10 people with serious injuries were sent to hospital. ”One thing is clear to me,” he said. ”Whatever the police say, they are highly provocative.” He described how people would gather on pavements, drawn by the presence of army vehicles. ”Then the police would come through in vans and stop where the people were standing. A loose stone might fly and it starts a whole war.”
In Kaya Mandi township near Stellenbosch a 23-year-old mother of a three¬ month-old baby, Liziwe Masokanye, died of police gunshot wounds. Six others, including a nine-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were reported wounded. Mitchells Plain resident Sulaiman Martin, 26 died in Groote Schuur Hospital after being shot in the head. His companion, Shirley Engelbrecht, told a doctor the couple were walking home when police drew up and people ran. Martin was shot while perched on a fence he was trying to climb over. A Hanover Park advice office worker said about 30 people were arrested after a group marched on a polling station and about 25 more were arrested during a second attempt ”People were burning barricades, rioting, there was teargas,” she said. Motorists were also reported injured in widespread stoning on Cape Town’s major highways. Trains were stoned at Modderdam station.
*The police challenged Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr Boesak to substantiate claims at yesterday’s press conference that 23 people were shot dead, apparently by the SAP in the Cape Peninsula. The police statement read: ”Evidence at our disposal reveals that seven people were killed in Khayelitsha where two opposing factions have been involved in a longstanding feud. ”In the ‘coloured’ area of Eersterus, Bishop Lavis and Mitchells Plain five people were killed during mob and street violence. All had apparently died from gunshot wounds. ”The circumstances surrounding their deaths are still not known. Police, however took possession of five ‘zip-guns (homemade firearms) found after the mob violence. ”Two policemen were wounded when the) were shot at with shotguns.
Police are also investigating allegations that members of the public had fired at mobs after their catch had been stoned and petrol bombed . ”We also have no knowledge of a 69-year old woman whose headless body was found. We also await such evidence.” Athlone Attorney Essa Moosa said some of his staff were at mortuary yesterday when body of a nine-year-old child and those of four other children from Guguletu were brought in.
Iris Dyantyi, of Site C, Khayelitsha, said a five-year-old girl, Nomthunzi Matshebelele, was shot dead. She named other dead Khayelitsha residents as Boyisi Madyongolo, about 25, who had gunshot pellets ”in his head and back”, and Mabhatyi Mdlazilwana, 25. A paediatrician, Dr Louis Reynolds of the University of Cape Town’s medical school, said he visited the family of an 11-year-old boy who said the child had been shot at his front gate. ”
Other victims who have been identified include:
- Elsie Chemfana, 69, of Khayelitsha. The Argus reported that her headless corpse was found riddled with bullets and that her family later found the head
- Joseph Michel Makoma, about 25, of Kalksteenfontein, who was wounded in the head
- Thanduxolo Hlonyane, 20, of Khayelitsha, with gunshot wounds in his chest
- Nomthunzi Matshebelele, 5, of Site C Khayelitsha
- Unidentified ”coloured” child, about 11, Kalksteenfontein, wound in mouth
eUnidentified black male, about 25,Khayelitsha, gunshot wounds in back
- Unidentified black male, about 20, Khayelitsha, gunshot wounds in neck
- Unidentified ”coloured” male, about 15, Eerste River, gunshot wounds in back and legs
- Unidentified ”coloured” youth, about 16, Bishop Lavis, gunshot wounds in neck and back.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail
