Wednesday May 22, 2024
Genetic Somali shop .Foreign shopowners are reportedly fighting each other over turf in Delft, and are in cahoots with extortionists. pic supplied
Cape Town - The Delft Community Policing Forum (CPF) said it has become difficult to police shootings at informal shops.
This follows the murder of a Somali national and the attempted murder of a pregnant woman in Abardare Street, N2 Gateway, on Monday night.
Police spokesperson FC van Wyk said “The circumstances surrounding a shooting in Aberdare Street, Delft, on Monday evening, where a 35-year-old man was shot and fatally wounded and a 30-year-old female wounded are under investigation.
“Upon arrival at the scene police found the victims inside a shop with gunshot wounds to their bodies. The 35-year-old victim was declared deceased by medical personnel; the other victim was taken to a medical facility for treatment in a private vehicle. The motive for the attack is yet to be established. The suspect/s fled the scene and are yet to be arrested.”
CPF chairperson, Reginald Maart, said some of the cases are extortion-related, but others are foreign nationals attacking each other over territory.
“You can’t open (a shop) here because I’m here already, type of situation.
“When the foreign shop owners came into the area, they didn’t mind sharing space but now things have changed. Now they fight about having more than one shop in the same street.
“We believe that the foreigners influence extortion because they pay for protection, this is what we picked up. And some of them are paying gangsters to stop people from opening up businesses; different kinds of businesses and not just spaza shops.”
Attempts to get comment from the Somali Association of SA were unsuccessful by deadline yesterday.
Maart said it is difficult to prevent shootings because there aren’t enough vehicles. “We close shops sometimes at 9pm or 10pm, and they don’t want to close. They sometimes close and then when you leave, they open again.
“The young kids hang around the shops until late. We introduced Operation Lockdown on weekends and told them to close at 10pm, we still find people after 11pm going to the shops.
“You can’t police this, people don’t listen to us.”