Nine murders, five attempted murders — that’s this year’s toll in Jo’burg’s roughest `hood. Angella Johnson visited Westbury this week
JOEWA BOTHA leaned nonchalantly against the graffitied wall. He knows the risk of standing on a street corner — a target for drive-by gang shooting. “Look!”, he said, as he pointed excitedly at pock-marked plaster. “See where they fired at us the other day? I was lucky not to be hit, man.”
Botha and his cohorts are linked to the Varrados gang operating in Westbury, Johannesburg, and this is their territory. He is not about to be driven away, despite attacks by a rival gang known as “Fast Guns”.
The gang battle for territory has rocked this improverished neighbourhood — where about 70% are unemployed and crime is the main source of income – — on and off since the 1960s.
Outbreaks of violence appear to be cyclical — roughly every six months — and linked inextricably to drug trafficking. At its peak last year, nine people were gunned down in one week. This year’s tally stands at nine murders, five attempted murders and numerous others wounded.
“They want to come and sell drugs in our area, but we won’t allow it,” said Botha, referring to his Fast Guns opponents. A pulse twitches in his neck, making the tattoo etched there jump. It marks his affiliation to the prison gang known as the “26s”, which he joined while serving 11 years for robbery.
Botha, who last year ended a further four-year stretch, was shot in the leg by a Fast Gun while standing in a friend’s yard. “These people are fighting for nothing, because we are not going to let them sell drugs on our turf.”
The Varrados control only three streets in the sprawling housing development, as the more organised Fast Guns have managed to extend their territories over the years through profitable drug dealing.
While the Fast Guns peddle mandrax, crack and cocaine, the Varrados have concentrated on petty larceny like house-breaking and stealing car radios. That was until the lure of big bucks encouraged them to steal drugs from their rivals and go into the business themselves.
Police say it was during a raid of the Fast Guns that one of Varrados’ alleged leaders, Sam Jacobs, was shot dead three weeks ago. His family claims he was murdered by the Fast Guns.
Whatever the cause, his death sparked off a fresh wave of revenge shootings in which two alleged members of the Fast Guns were killed.
However, Jacobs’ relatives insist he was not a gangster — just “the most feared man in Westbury”. His mother, Joyce, recently confessed in an interview to having once made as much as R1,2- million a month peddling mandrax. Some locals believe she has taken on her son’s mantle.
His death has cleared way for the Fast Guns to consolidate their position. Most of the Varrados’s heavy hitters are now either dead or in prison.
Peter Faver, aka “Kosh”, is one of two people charged with peppering Jacobs’ home with nearly 30 bullets last year in a revenge shooting. He denies any gang involvement. “I used to belong to a football club and a few of our members are so-called Fast Guns, so everyone thinks I’m part of this.”
Faver claims the Fast Guns disbanded in 1986 after 12 of its top people went to prison.”I’ve become caught up in it because one of them is a relative.” His 20-year-old nephew, David, was also killed in a gang shoot-out with the Varrados.
“This thing has been going for so many years, that no one remembers how it started,” he said. “Now we just have to protect ourselves. If it was supposed to end, then it would have ended some time ago.”
A boilermaker by trade, Faver lives with his sister and extended family in a cramped house in Extension 3 — but he drives a BMW and has a cellphone. He also carries a licensed firearm.
While he is busy publicly protesting his involvement, younger members of the Fast Guns are not so reticent as they loiter on corners piled with uncollected rubbish. “Peachie”, a member of an affiliated gang, Boys Of Colour, claims to have killed at least three people, robbed others and stolen cars. The 17-year-old says he has managed to escape jail thanks to a lack of evidence.
Tension in the community is running high. Residents complain of a de facto curfew which leaves the streets virtually empty from about 7pm. “We live in a state of siege,” complained resident Maria Peterson.
Her 19-year-old son, an alleged Varrados member, was pistol whipped last weekend by the Fast Guns. “Certain parts of the neighbourhood have become no- go areas for our kids. Now it’s becoming so that they can’t even walk freely in their own section,” she said.
Both sides blame each other for the violence. But Superintendent Marius Morland, commander of the local Johan Coetzee police station, believes it reflects the changing face of the drug trade in Johannesburg.
“Nigerian pushers have pushed down market prices by selling their wares cheaper. Local dealers like the Fast Guns therefore have to expand their territory to make the same amount of money,” Morland said.
In the past anyone wanting to buy drugs knew Westbury was the place to find dealers hanging about street corners. Police now believe punters prefer to buy in other areas such as Hillbrow, Rockey Street in Yeoville or the Waterfront in Randburg.
Morland, an expert on gangsterism, was recruited from Cape Town earlier this year to clean up the neighbourhood and weed out any corrupt officers.
Since his arrival at least 16 officers have moved from the station — though he insists this had nothing to do with allegations of police collusion with gang members made by local people.
“You have got to realise that disinformation is part of the way these people operate,” said police media liaison officer Jan Combrink.
Local Anglican cleric Reverend Douglas Matthews does not think the SAPS is really committed to combating gangsterism in the area. “You don’t hear of any successes and their investigating has been very lethargic. I don’t think they are behind the community in fighting this scourge,” he said.
Saths Cooper, a psychologist specialising in gang violence, agrees. “They don’t seem to be tackling this with the same zeal used against political activists under the old regime,” he said.
Morland countered by pointing out that times have changed. “The playing field is no longer as it was. In the past there were not so many restrictions placed on the police as now.”
He added that despite Westbury’s notoriety, it had one of the lowest crime rates in his police district. Neighbouring, mostly white and much wealthier Westdene has the highest.
Westbury however, remains something of a pariah, tarnished with a reputation for gangland activities.
Glen Steyn, who heads a non-governmental organisation called Conquest, is working to disprove the bad name. “I believe something can still be done to pull this community around. There’s a lot of energy in the gangs. We want to harness and redirect it towards legitimate business.
“Contrary to popular perception there are many skilled and semi-skilled people here. I’m talking about carpenters, upholsterers, bricklayers and some who have tried to run their own businesses before.”
Conquest is hoping to attract companies to either set up locally or to donate funding for people to get training.
It is a tall task, says Gregory Pik, a police officer from Cape Town who now works in the area. “There is something about our people that they can’t seem to get rid of the gang mentality. It is predominantly a `coloured’ thing. We all grow up indoctrinated by it.”
Morland asked:”Why should a young man work for R1 000 per month when he can earn R15 000 and drive around in a BMW by selling drugs?”