Marianne Merten
The year started with a blast in Cape Town. On New Year’s Day 1999 a pipe bomb ripped apart a car in the V&A Waterfront parking, injuring two people, but resulting in no arrests.
The year is ending with a bang – and confusion. Police and politicians sprang into action in November after two pipe bomb explosions – at the Blah Bar in Green Point, injuring nine people, and St Elmo’s pizzeria in Camps Bay, injuring 48. But contradictory statements and actions by various police and intelligence agencies highlighted a lack of co-ordination in bringing the perpetrators to book and added to allegations of police complicity.
The year saw a distinct shift in the four-year-long conflict in Cape Town. Between 1996 and late 1998, pipe bombs and drive-by shootings were carried out largely on the Cape Flats. At the end of last year, the conflict moved to police stations, traditionally white areas and tourism spots.
This change of target and the lack of a significant number of convictions has increased speculation about police complicity and wavering political will to solve the bombings. Police are blaming a small, independent cell of G-force – the armed wing of People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) – for the violence.
It was the death of two people and injury of at least 25 in the bombing of Planet Hollywood at the end of August 1998 which entrenched the term “urban terror” in Cape Town. Although police had recorded about 1 400 attacks since mid- 1996, the conflict up to then had always been called the Cape Flats war.
In 1998, 225 people, including 13 children, were killed in 667 incidents of pipe bombings, drive-by shootings and arson attacks. About 188 of these attacks have been linked to Pagad; the rest are related to gang conflicts. Official statistics for 1999 are not available from the police’s central crime information centre.
Reaction from politicians, law enforcement officials, representatives of the provincial and local governments and the religious community has been strikingly similar after each attack on police stations and tourist spots. Descriptions of the bombers as cowards, public appeals not to be intimidated and promises to find the perpetrators have been standard responses as VIPs visit victims in hospitals and tour the remains of restaurants.
After a lull in the attacks after May this year, the anti-urban terrorism campaign, Operation Good Hope, was scaled down by half because authorities believed the key people behind previous bombings were behind bars. November’s explosions in the Mother City, particularly the blast at St Elmo’s at the start of the festive season, destroyed the belief that law and order had been restored.
Despite rewards totalling about R2,5- million, no one has been arrested for the spate of high-profile bombings. And in the background, the gang wars continue to claim lives. In Elsies River four people were killed last month in a gang war. In Manenberg at least nine people have died since October in another battle for gang turf and control.
As the new millennium dawns, it seems police and intelligence officials are little closer to breaking the back of urban terror. There have been only two successful convictions over the years: one early in the conflict for the illegal possession of a firearm and the sentencing of Pagad member Dawood Osman in mid-December for involvement in the killing of three teenagers and a young man outside the V&A Waterfront in March 1998.
Divisions between different branches of the police service, particularly in the Western Cape, have been blamed. An illustration of this emerged at the bail hearing of the five Pagad members arrested in possession of a detonator and unlicensed firearms in the Karoo in February. The then investigating officer, Superintendent Henry Beukes, testified that it could be possible for policemen to kill undercover operatives because of a lack of co-operation.
But there are some signs of hope. In the first few months of the year 2000, several people described by authorities as “key perpetrators” will stand trial.
Pagad’s alleged top hitman, Ebrahim Jenneker, is facing 124 charges ranging from murder and attempted murder to theft. Brothers Abdullah and Ismail Maansdorp are being brought to court in connection with two of the murders Jenneker is charged with. Pagad imam Moegsien Barends and two others are in the dock on counts relating to the manufacture of pipe bombs. The trial of the five Pagad members arrested in the Karoo will also start. The case against the six Pagad members found in possession of at least one unlicensed firearm after a police chase along Eastern Boulevard in February is also expected to proceed.