As 2018 draws to a close – and we publish the last edition of Athlone News for the year – NABEELAH MOHEDEEN takes a look at some of the stories which gripped communities this year.
A newborn baby was found at the Silverstream sewerage pump station on Monday Jan- uary 22. Manenberg police station spokesman Captain Ian Bennett said a workman cleaning a sewage tank made the discovery.
They then alerted SAPS whose divers came to remove the body from the sewerage tank. The body was to be sent for tests to determine whether the little infant had been alive at birth.
This was followed by the gruesome discovery of the body of 18-year-old Mushfeeqah Hanslow, from Hanover Park, who was found dead in a dark room with a bag over her head and her hands and feet tied, with a bullet wound to her shoulder, on Tuesday February 27.
On April 11 we interviewed a family from Manenberg who were living in fear of being shot after their 80-year-old grandfather was narrowly missed by a bullet when it smashed through his window as he was relaxing on a chair in his room.
They decided not to replace their windows any longer, because as soon as they were replaced, they were destroyed by bullets again. The said they had no longer sat in their lounge, and even disconnected their television, as this room was the most vulnerable when it came to gang shootings.
Also in April, members of the Pinati Estate Community Civic Association were relieved that a section of the Blomvlei canal was finally closed after a 10-year battle.
The canal was the scene of many illegal activities, including being used as a place to smoke drugs, hide stolen goods, burn stolen copper wire, as well as dumping and children were using it as a playground.
Trying to bring culture and art back into Athlone, Kenneth Alexander opened an art gallery at his home in Cranley Street, on his 63rd birthday on Sunday June 24. Mr Alexander inherited his love for art from his late uncle, Roland Alexander, who was an artist but left for England as he battled to sell his work here.
He said his parents never encouraged his artistic endeavours as they wanted him to become an accountant.
On Friday October 5, Ameer-odien Noordien, 20, a volunteer with the humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers became one of the latest victims in the ongoing gang violence in Hanover Park when he was killed in crossfire in Surwood Walk.
Residents of the Cape Flats hope that the launch of the anti-gang unit will help to stabilise communities gripped by crime after President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the 95-member unit in Hanover Park on Friday November 2. Colonel Dawood Laing, station commander of Philippi police station, said the unit would be integrated into the existing police force and would investigate all gang-related cases, including the re- cruitment of children as young as 11 years old by gangs.
Also in November we reported on the death of nursing student Sinovuyo Yusi, a first-year Western Cape College of Nursing student, whose body was discovered in his dormitory room on Monday November 12, after security noticed blood seeping out under his door into the passage. The body was already decomposing.
Two weeks ago, on Wednesday December 5 we reported on the Manenberg community action plan which will see to the upgrade of the area. It includes the building of the Klipfontein Regional Hospital on the current premises of Silverstream High School and Sonderend Primary School.
Silverstream High School will be retained as a School of Skills and established on the site of the former GF Jooste Hospital on Duinefontein Road while a new primary school will be constructed on the current Edendale Primary School site and will accommodate pupils from both Edendale and Sonderend primary schools. Pupils of Rio Grande and Manenberg primary schools will have their schools rebuilt on the properties those schools currently occupy, as was the case at Red River and Silverstream primary schools. However, this week we report that there are residents who do not support the plan.
