When Laeeqah Khan came home from work to find her nine-year-old daughter lying in front of their bathroom, covered in a blanket, and shivering, so much that she thought her daughter was having a seizure, she knew she had to do her part to end the gang violence.
The Khan family home in Tiberias Court, Hanover Park, has been hit several times by stray bullets, as the continuous gang war wreaks havoc on their daily lives. Since January, a total of 20 people have been shot and killed – and three of them lost their lives in Tiberias Court.
On Monday February 11, the fear of being shot just became too much for the nine-year-old, and she did what she thought best to protect herself.
“I had to rush my daughter to hospital. She almost went into a fit. These gangsters make us sick. We can’t eat. We can’t sleep. We have to constantly run for shelter. Once the bullet even came through our roof. We don’t want to fight. All we as a community want, is peace,” Ms Khan said.
Shortly after the Monday evening shooting, Ms Khan and three other residents of Tiberias Court – notorious for gang violence – got together to discuss ways to change things. This led to arranging an open-air meeting in their court, and when other residents heard of this initiative, they asked that the same be done at theirs.
On Friday February 15, residents from Walvis Court gathered to share their frustration and possible ways of ending the bloodshed.
Manuel Julius said he lost six people who were close to him, within six months.
“I lost my nephew, my brother-in-law and neighbours, and these were all innocent people. We are sick and tired of this,” Mr Julius said.
Many of the speakers called on mothers to take the lead in changing things, but one speaker, Lawrence Holmes, challenged all men to “take their rightful place in their homes”.
“It takes a real man to raise a child. Whenever the community talk about gang violence, we always hear about the role mothers should take. I am telling all the men today: be a man for a change. No child of mine will try their luck in my household,” Mr Holmes said, to roaring applause.
Jonathan van Eden, chairperson of the Ryston Neighbourhood Watch, agreed with Mr Holmes, saying: “I take my hat off to the women for all the effort they put into restoring peace, but we need more men to take on this fight. As residents, we are more than the bullets. God is with us, and we are doing this for our children.”
Shireen Hendricks came all the way from Hanall Walk, also known as the “Hell”, to share their experience.
“We too lost a lot of innocent children. As mothers, we decided to take our streets back, and started a neighbourhood watch called Mothers of Hope. Since we got organised, the gangsters don’t loiter around in our road anymore. As parents, we have the power to put a stop to it,” she said.
Many of the speakers also called for unity, and for residents not to be scared of reporting the shooters to the police.
“It’s sad to see the heartache and trauma our children have to go through. This land – our community – is for our children to enjoy and to play, and it should never have become a battlefield for gangsters. We cannot allow them to take away our freedom and our children’s right to play any longer,” Ms Khan said.
Another resident, Joan Scholtz, said: “The Lord wants to take care of us. We do not dare to move without him. It’s of no use just to talk and show fingers to the next person – use your hands to see how you can help to make a difference.”
Community worker Maureen Aasvoë* encouraged the community to “go back to the way we lived before”.
“In previous years, your child was my child. We must all take hands and stand together. There is help for your child who might be involved with the wrong things,” she said.
Philippi SAPS spokesperson, Captain Lance Goliath, said there had been many sporadic shootings in the area. However, he was not able to confirm the number of people killed, because of the national police directive, which puts a moratorium on releasing police statistics.
“We want to strengthen our partnership with the community, and above our regular engagements with the residents, we will also have a stakeholder engagement meeting, with Advocate Lennit Max,” Captain Goliath said.