Cape Town’s detective service is alarmed that ”another eight or nine bombs” made by arrested People against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) member Shahied ”Bal” Davids remain unaccounted for.
But the official consensus is that Davids’s alleged plans for terror attacks on Cape Town’s city centre, V&A Waterfront and well-heeled suburbs were a solo effort, and that the militant Muslim vigilante group is not undergoing a general resurgence.
Davids was arrested on December 11 on the N7 highway between Malmesbury and Cape Town in an apparent police ”sting”, allegedly with three pipe bombs in the boot of his vehicle. Senior police officers close to the investigation said this week that he ”probably acted alone”.
He appeared in the Malmesbury Magistrate’s Court and pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing explosives. He is currently held at Pollsmoor maximum security prison.
The police investigation is now focused on finding other bombs made by Davids. ”We’re deeply worried about these bombs and finding them is our priority at the moment,” said one senior officer, who asked not to be named.
Pagad members told the Mail & Guardian that a number of houses across the Cape Peninsula have been raided by police in connection with the bombs. Police officers would neither confirm nor deny this.
Investigating detective Captain Paul Hendrickse, of the organised crime unit, testified that Davids’s targets were ”probably the city centre, the Waterfront, Constantia Village Shopping Mall, Greenpoint, Wynberg and Kenilworth”.
Although the police have not put the Waterfront on official alert, security was stepped up at the centre, which attracts up to two million visitors in December and January.
The M&G has learned that Davids made the bombs himself, but asked another man to install the detonators.
A police officer said this week that the police had ”crossed paths with Davids on a number of occasions” in connection with terrorist activities. ”We know him. Our investigation is far from over. We’re taking this man and his bombs very seriously.”
Davids was released from prison in 2005 after serving a jail sentence for Pagad-related violence during the late 1990s.
In November 2000, he was again charged in connection with a pipe bomb defused by police at the Durbanville Keg and Swann restaurant. The charges were later dropped because of an allegedly false statement made by a police investigator. A senior police officer said this week that the charges were now likely to be reinstated.
Pagad members this week denied that Davids’s arrest signified a resurgence of the organisation.
”Davids is a loose cannon, not a Pagad soldier or leader,” said one. ”He is a lightweight, with no street cred. He features nowhere during our Mosque meetings,” said a member who asked to remain anonymous.
Acting national coordinator of Pagad, Cassiem Parker, confirmed that Davids had been an active Pagad member, but said that other members had not seen him for more than a year. ”We don’t have a membership roll and consider somebody a member because of their association and involvement in our programmes. Davids has not been around.”
A neighbour of Davids in Bridgetown, Athlone, who asked not to be named described Davids and his brother as ”Pagad-fanatics” who ”keep to themselves”.
”Bal’s brother has this long beard and Bal has frequently been in trouble with the law because of bombs and other kinds of crime,” the neighbour said.
The director of the Institute for Security Studies in the Western Cape, Peter Gastrow, said he was ”surprised” by Davids’s arrest, as ”Pagad is so heavily infiltrated by the security forces”.
”At the same time it’s very comforting to know that the police were presumably on this man’s case – I’m sure Davids was watched. The cops don’t just pull a car driving between Malmesbury and Cape Town over and search the boot where three pipe bombs are stashed.”
According to Gastrow Pagad is still an active organisation but so heavily infiltrated that it is basically neutralised. ”I don’t know if this is a rogue element within Pagad or whether Davids is acting alone,” he said.