Abrham Smith:                  During the nighttime this area becomes a total slum. Evils from all sorts crawl out. This area is actually, at the moment, it's in a state of anarchy, total anarchy.

Speaker 2:                           Sea Point has become gangland. Some gangsters now refer to this suburb as Lunenberg by the sea. Gangsters and other criminal syndicates have moved into the area and made it their own.

Jeremy Veary:                   You find it sort of subdivided between the Americans who consider a certain part of it their land as 26s. And between- and some of the 8s are also, of course, in alliance with them. And the 28's from [inaudible] consider large part of Sea Port as their land.

Speaker 2:                           Jeremy Veary is the former head of an investigative anti-gang task team.

Jeremy Veary:                   The 28s are further down, slightly past that shoulder, please, further down towards the mid point area and between 6s from about that area of the shops.

Speaker 2:                           Today, he is the country's foremost expert on Western Cape gangs.

Jeremy Veary:                   Up towards the courtyard.

Speaker 2:                           In the day, this hardly looks like gangland, but behind the suburban façade, a multiple murder took place. A murder that some say carries the whole mark of a gangland killing that took place under the cover of darkness.

Speaker 2:                           This is Sizzlers, a gay massage parlour, at seven Grain Street in Sea Point. It was famous for its collection of young men who are for sale for sex. But, when police arrived here in the early hours of Monday morning a week ago, they found a bloodbath. Seven sex workers, a client, and the brothel owner were dead. Their throats had been slit and they'd been shot execution style. What happened that night in Sizzlers has triggered a week of speculation, paranoia, fear, and conspiracy theories.

Speaker 2:                           Tonight, a special assignment team will attempt to bring you answers. Who committed these murders? Why were innocent young boys killed, and what happened that night?

Jeremy Veary:                   Murders of this nature, not of this maybe this kind of scale nature, but murders in general, gang mates murders are normal. They are normal. They're not supposed to be normal. That's what the lot of them doing. But they are perfectly in every corridor of some gang, some gang areas in the northern suburbs in the part of this province.

Irvin Kinnis:                         For me, there isn't anything that is new in this particular method, particularly in Cape Town. We've seen in the heart of the gang vigilante war, several people executed in this manner.

Speaker 2:                           Cape Town has become the gay capital of South Africa. It's streets are dotted and lined with gay clubs, massage parlours, and male sex workers. Sizzlers was nothing exceptional, or was it? It was boys like this that adorned Sizzlers and attracted its clientele. Abe Bush is an 18 year old masseur who started working at the club when he was only 17 years old.

Abe Bush:                            Sizzlers was known for young, you know, for good looking young guys. And I was very young, and very good looking, and that's what they want.

Bryan Jenkins:                   Well, I know about interviews. You've got to strip for the owners. You got to strip- take you naked for them, so they can see if you're well endowed, enough, I suppose, and how you muscular features are and everything before you do get the job.

Abe Bush:                            Well, it was mostly married men, and they were just coming to have a great time just to settle down. Yeah. We were sitting in watching movies, gay movies, and we were having fun with the owner. And the owner was a very nice guy.

Bryan Jenkins:                   You came to the front door of the house, there's a security gate and a glass pane door. As you walked in, there's a room on your left and that's where all the guys slept, and stayed, and waited until clients came.

Abe Bush:                            Drugs were not allowed on the premises, but they allow to do it outside.

Bryan Jenkins:                   Money wasn't much because they used to have to pay 200 a week for being there, and the little crammed room they were staying in that wasn't very nice looking. Hours was long. If they stayed on the premises, even when they closed, they were on duty, they were on standby.

Abe Bush:                            They supposed to do about five clients on average a day before they could go to sleep to recover on their drug that they use or whatever.

Bryan Jenkins:                   What happened was the night I was there, they had 12 calls and two out bookings. I delivered the youngsters to the gentleman's houses where they went in and did whatever they had to do.

Abe Bush:                            Yeah. You had to sometimes wait for clients to arrive, or maybe the clients doesn't want you because they've already had you and they just want to try somebody else, or you have to see what the other people like.

Speaker 2:                           Nothing seems to have been out of the ordinary at Sizzlers, except for initial reports that suggested that the killers came to Sizzlers looking for two young men called Maruan and Steven. Around the time of the murder, a group of unknown men allegedly also asked around town for Maruan and Steven at gay clubs on the strip.

Maruan:                               I don't know why my name has been used, but somebody must have used my name to do something wrong in jail, but something very, very wrong that ten people get killed for it. Or this is just a decoy.

Speaker 2:                           Do you have enemies?

Maruan:                               It seems that, yes, or two years is up in the- I've had some threats from Nigerians and Cape Town gangsters telling me, leave our boys alone.

Speaker 2:                           The other car that was seen along with the white car with a white man in it that was asking for you, the car behind was the red car. Who was in that car?

Maruan:                               Well, what I've gathered from the police was I've heard them saying it was two Nigerians, one with the name of C.J.

Speaker 2:                           Maruan denies allegations that they were involved in a massive drug deal and absconded without paying. The deal, it's speculated, involved Nigerian drug lords and gangsters. Hours after the massacre, reports blamed the murders on four light skinned men in a white BMW. But now, another version is emerging. Street talk that has spread fast.

Speaker 2:                           [foreign language 00:07:09].

Speaker 2:                           We needed a firsthand account of this new development on the identity of the killers. Up to this point, all speculation has centred around four white men. It took a special assignment team only a few hours to trace someone who lived in the area and said they'd seen the killers. The person was too terrified to speak on camera, but has made a statement to the police. The story they told us was the following. There were eight men driving two cars, and the men weren't whites.

Speaker 2:                           On the night of the murders, Juan-Duval Uys made a phone call to Sizzlers. On the other side of the line he says he heard heavy breathing. Then the line went dead. Uys, as also chairperson of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance, was one of the first to be on the scene and in the morgue to identify victims.

Juan-Duval Uys:                Because of the fact that the guys was tied up, way that the guy actually all the guys was lined up, it seems to me that it actually appeared if they was like praying, you know, in that position. And in the mortuary, actually, when I checked some of the guys, the tape was removed. Some of the guys, the tape was already removed and you could see actually the power to the guys tried to use to get rid of the tape while the execution took place. So, that's why I'm saying you can't believe and imagine the fear, especially the guys that had to witness it, were still alive, had to witness to see that number one, number two, number three, number four got executed.

Peter Fleishman:              I think it was pretty gruesome.

Allison Fleishm:                 I keep asking what it must've- Travis must've been terrified, terrified. And that is what is worrying me. He didn't go out peacefully. You went out a frightened little boy.

Juan-Duval Uys:                These people was really slaughtered, totally from ear to ear, right through. And, I mean, I checked small things like on my friends and stuff like the I could see some of the guys still was lying with open eyes.

Allison Fleishm:                 I'm waking up at night and I can see the throats, and I can see them so clearly. I mean, you wake up and you can see this face, and then I've got got to go deal with this, with Travis, all that blood all over his face. How could they try and help themselves when they were taped, gagged, made to lie on the floor?

Juan-Duval Uys:                Apparently my friend was trying to get away from the scene right next to the window behind one of the beds. They have to remove even that to get to him and kill him right there like animal. And, you know what? I can't even say like animal, because you don't kill animals like this at all.

Allison Fleishm:                 What murder, what murder is it? What murder do you call it?

Speaker 2:                           Sizzlers owner, Aubrey Otgaar, known as Eric, was the first to be laid to rest. To his family and some of the boys in his parlour, he was a loving and caring man. Others though accuse him of exploiting desperate young boys.

Speaker 11:                         The first thing that I would say to you to do today is that, because what we do does not define who we are, what we see in the life of Aubrey, in my life, in your life is never God's final word about any person, never. If there was one person who was in the same lifestyle that Aubrey found himself in and his eight companions, just one single person who looked at the horror of this event and stopped for a moment, and considered things carefully, and decided to get out, to make a break, to make a change, just one person. Then the death of Aubrey, and Travis, and Sergio, and their companions would be exactly the same as the death of Jesus on the cross.

Abe Bush:                            When I was there, they were threats and what could have happened there, I don't know. But the phone sometimes rings in the morning and, when you pick it up, there's no answer.

Speaker 2:                           As the massacre in Sea Point reverberated across the country, parents, friends, and family identified their loved ones. In the Free State town of Theunissen, 17 year old Stephanus Fouche was buried. He was known as Ryan and I had gone to Cape Town to find his luck. Yesterday, his parents buried their only child.

Abe Bush:                            Ryan was also 17, and we just said that we were 18 or 19 just to get into the job, because we find it difficult to get a job or to do anything because we needed money. He also wanted to finish school, that's on the stage, he told me, was his only [inaudible 00:12:23].

Speaker 2:                           The brutality of these murders has shocked and baffled policeman, journalists, and family members. Why would the killers slit throats and then shoot people at point blank range? What would the significance of this be in a gang land killing?

Speaker 2:                           The Sizzlers murders were brutal to the extreme. Who is capable of such a deed and why?

Jeremy Veary:                   Firstly one, I don't want to speculate about the murder itself. I don't have access to the evidence. I think one of the telling signs that we should try and look into, what the aspects we should look at is the way they were killed, the slaughtering way.

Irvin Kinnis:                         I think the solution to finding out who these killers were is for the authorities to go and look at the methodology that was employed. Yeah.

Jeremy Veary:                   What is interesting to me, what would assist a more accurate reflection on the issue, is to actually look at how it was done.

Irvin Kinnis:                         Because the pattern would seem to suggest that it follows the patterns of earlier killings in Cape Town.

Jeremy Veary:                   And how it was done is cannot simply be explained in terms of when shooting, throat slit, and what I want to see how throats were slit. Which way were they facing when this happened? What was said while it was being done?

Speaker 2:                           Massacres like these have happened before in Cape Town, and are not new in the Western Cape. For example, this is a 1998 execution of six suspected drug dealers in a house in Woodstock, Cape Town. One of the victims was gang leader, Pinocchio. Four men entered his house late at night and shot them at point blank range.

Irvin Kinnis:                         It's a not an uncommon phenomenon, and welcome to Cape Town. Welcome to Johannesburg. This is South Africa. We must wake up to that reality.

Speaker 2:                           Since the middle '90s, gangsters expanded their base from their traditional strong holds of the [inaudible 00:14:44]. They move to the lucrative area of Cape Town in a city, specifically Sea point. Different areas of Sea Point are now controlled by the so called 26 and 28 gangs.

Jeremy Veary:                   Both are involved in prostitution. Both are involved in the sale of a coke at the street level. And that, essentially, is their business. Yeah.

Speaker 2:                           Different gangs control different turf. Whoever controls the land picks the fruit of the underworld. To the gangs, everything in that area belongs to them. In gang logic, any business operating in there turf does so on gang terms.

Jeremy Veary:                   You I have no right to conduct a business which they consider their activity, in their land. [foreign language 00:15:35]. A dirty, stupid person, in literal terms. You have no right, as someone foreign to the camp, to conduct that type of activity or any kind of illicit business activity in their particular land.

Speaker 2:                           But what's going on in Sea Point? What lies behind the facade of restaurants, hotels, and multimillion brand real estate? We asked a former narcotics bureau officer to take us on a journey through Sea point at night. Abrham Smith is now a private security consultant and knows the area well.

Abrham Smith:                  This area is actually, at the moment, it's in a state of anarchy, total anarchy. It's going to waste. The criminals are in charge. Sea Point has become a springboard for organised crime. I think, as we progress through the night, the footage will speak for itself. And one could actually then exploit and see what actually happens in the underworld, on this side of Cape Town.

Abrham Smith:                  On the left, I have two prostitutes, two locals. A lot of these woman are under restraint and controlled by local gang groups and pimps. And, of course, it varies from street block to street block.

Jeremy Veary:                   If the 28s, I know they have a gay prostitution network, they have both sides of the prostitution. But you must understand, within the 28s, they hate the word gay and they hate being referred to us as homosexual in some cases.

Abrham Smith:                  There's no visibility or policing in this area. There is tremendous congregation of smaller groups, drug trafficking is rife. You will be approached. Look. Video this guy just approaching us. Ready on him? Just getting here now.

Speaker 12:                         What can I get for you man?

Abrham Smith:                  What you got?

Speaker 12:                         It depends on the type you want.

Abrham Smith:                  All right. I'm going to go down the block. Okay?

Speaker 12:                         Okay.

Abrham Smith:                  Okay. What'd you got? H?

Speaker 12:                         I dot then.

Abrham Smith:                  All right.

Speaker 12:                         I do. H, man. Yeah. This is something-

Speaker 13:                         Yeah, but your wasting though.

Abrham Smith:                  Yeah, we'll go around the side. As you could see, you were approached by a West African, you can catch him, catch his face. A West African that actually offered me openly whatever I want, cocaine, crack.

Jeremy Veary:                   There is a lot of talk about the Nigerians in Sea Point. And some of them, they supply coke to the Americans and they supply coke to the 28s. Yeah, in this particular area, the same people, expediently so. It is understood. It is done.

Abrham Smith:                  What you got.

Speaker 12:                         Yeah, what do you want. No, don't, don't, don't-

Abrham Smith:                  Okay, now, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

Speaker 12:                         Back, man.

Abrham Smith:                  Okay. Okay. Just go, just go. Ride force, ride force.

Abrham Smith:                  They said that of you. They'll jump in and they'll knife you.

Jeremy Veary:                   The problem with the Nigerians is they don't have the muscle. Who ever has tried to operate here, they were forced into a position where they should recognise the authority on the hard lines in the Sea Point area at the time. They should recognise the authority of the Americans, to the extent some of them where they did nothing, but chased out of town. And they ran out of town.

Abrham Smith:                  There was a stage that the Nigerians, well, the West Africans, had a mood of a shoot out with the gangsters here. They don't retreat. They don't stand back.

Jeremy Veary:                   Look, the 28s live in the city. They live at certain- I know some of them lived at certain backpackers, and some of them lived in some hotels down here.

Abrham Smith:                  A lot of the criminal groups operating in this area have actually invested in purchasing property in this area. Let's get past the crime scene. Just go very slow. I think it was definitely related to the actual extortion, racketeering that's going on in this province, and of which this area has fallen prey and is actually the victim of such a barbaric act.

Jeremy Veary:                   You must understand, brutality and those things are terms that means certain things in our non-gang terms. Down there, these things are business as usual. If, for a ritual reason, something has to be executed to correct some particular wrong or because of a fail and partner is doing the workup, the number that he shouldn't be doing, it gets done as part of the normal complying with the code of conduct for enforcing that compliance with the code of conduct or ensuring that the person desists from the practise. In that type of reasoning, their reasoning, their frame of reference, it's normal.

Irvin Kinnis:                         A lot of times people, this kind of killings are senseless, you know? When so many people die in one in one event, one incident. I think, on the contrary, to the killers and to the people that have ordered this killing, it makes perfect sense.

Jeremy Veary:                   I don't want to say this is the case here, but the slaughtering would be a part of, in some cases, 28 ritual. But, under particular circumstances, when you want to make a point, a statement about something. You see, 28's don't shoot at random. They don't just kill randomly. They kill in a particular way to project a certain message. Not to you, you don't understand it, but to the camp or whoever they want that message to go out to.

Speaker 2:                           This is a 28 massacre, a bloodbath that is similar to what happened in Sizzlers just over a week ago. In this massacre in [inaudible] two years ago, three people were mowed down. Police subsequently blamed the 28's for the bloodbath.

Jeremy Veary:                   If I said 28, for example, if I have reason according to the way they reason, I needed to make an example of a failed in partner who is operating a business within my land as a 28 to which he has no right to do. He's earning income with money that is rightfully mine as a 28. I need to send the message to everybody that this should not be done again. And the way I send this message is through slaughter. I will slaughter them, if I should reason in those terms.

Speaker 2:                           As yet, the police have not officially blamed the Sea Point massacre on gangs operating in the area, but Sizzlers was in 28s territory. We don't know if the owner paid protection money, or whether he or anyone linked to the parlour was involved in drugs or any other illicit deals. But, if he angered the gang or was branded as a failing partner, Sizzlers could have expected a visit from the gangs.