/ 30 June 1997

Pagad threatens to kill drug dealers

MONDAY, 10.00AM

THE Gauteng leader of the vigilante group People Against Gangsterism and Drugs at the weekend threatened his group will kill powerful Gauteng drug barons he described as “untouchable” by the law.

Ayob Mungalee said: “We feel we have a right to kill these people because they are killing many other people with their drugs.”

Mungalee and his group failed to attend a scheduled meeting on Friday with police and management of a shopping centre in Johannesburg’s upmarket Rosebank suburb, called after he and a henchman were beaten up by club bouncers in the area last week when they were distributing pamphlets.

Meanwhile, Johannesburg police representative Captain Johan du Toit said police will not allow any organisation to go around saying it intends killing people, whatever the circumstances. He said police will investigate Pagad’s threats, as well as the activities of the alleged drug bosses they threatened to kill.

MONDAY, 4.30PM

Cape Town police late on Sunday arrested five men, allegedly Pagad members, and seized two firearms following a drive-by shooting in the city’s Kensington suburb. Police representative Captain Jacques Wiese on Monday said a group of men wearing scarves to obscure their faces fired about 50 shots and threw three petrol bombs at the house at about 10.30pm on Sunday.

The house owner, Frank Davids, was shot in the back and a passerby, David Melcome, was wounded in the right leg. Both were discharged from hospital after treatment. Shortly after the attack police noticed a vehicle fitting the description of the suspect car, and after a high speed chase forced the vehicle off the road and arrested the five.