The Staggie brothers were a double act. Identical twins who grew to rule their deprived neighbourhood through bullying and kindness. They created one of the biggest gangs on the Cape Flats.
Rashaad Staggie was the flamboyant one — a drug dealer with a ”heart of gold”. He would often drive through Manenberg (a former coloured township) throwing paper money out the window, people running behind cheering as they collected their share of his drug earnings.
Rashaad was also reckless. It was this rashness that led to his vigilante killing last weekend.
He had been out drinking when a call came that a mob led by members of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) had converged in front of his house. Rashaad rushed to be with his family despite Rashied’s warning that it was a dangerous move. He was convinced no one would dare to openly challenge a Staggie. He had miscalculated the people’s anger.
Rashaad, a member of the 28 prison gang (who sodomised and murdered prisoners) was the softer of the brothers. According to friends, he had wanted to leave the gangs, but could not tear himself away.
He is survived by his wife Denise and four daughters.
Rashied, or ”mad dog” as his brother nicknamed him, was said to be the criminal brains behind the Hard Livings gang. It was he who organised their alleged drug trafficking.
During the making of a fly-on-the wall British Broadcasting Corporation documentary on the gang’s activities, Rashied admitted he had been placed in the psychiatric ward during one of his spells in prison.
”He made his money in the early days by robbing other gangsters and built up a formidable reputation as a man never to cross,” explained the film’s producer, Dan Read.
Rashied used his reputation to pull together one of the most feared gangs in the Cape. ”They killed the wrong brother,” said a community member. ”They have left the most dangerous to wreak havoc. The mad dog now has full-blown rabies and I don’t want to imagine what he is capable of doing.”