Shenid Bhayroo: |
Another
gangster is laid to rest on the Cape Flats, according to police Ernie Lapepa Peters was a drug smuggling gang leader who held
the community in a grip of terror for years. He was gunned down in his BMW
near his home in the township of Belhar. |
Speaker
2: |
It's
gonna be all right. Family of Ernie Peters: mother,
boys it's okay. Don't worry it's okay. Protector for Ernie Peters, it's all
right. The Lord will be with you. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
Peter
was at least the 11th gang leader to be assassinated in the Western Cape.
Since the Muslim organisation, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, better
known as PAGAD started the war against drug dealers two and half years ago. |
Ivan
Waldeck: |
The
first bullet, the second bullet and you are facing death, with this scar I
faced death in the eye and you know what goes through my mind? Because they
is no one to help, they is no one you can call. They is no mama there, the
wife or kid. You call on your creator God. God help. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
Ivan
Wildeck is a former leader of the ugly Americans
Gang. He went to prison at the age of 14 for murder, after his release he
became a reborn Christian and is now working among his former gangster
friends. |
Ivan
Waldeck: |
I
believe any person, the gangster are scared. Yes they are scared and that's
what making them so most dangerous. Tell me a person who is not scared to
die. I am scared, but I have the peace because I know where I am going when I
die. They are not. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
Many
gangster are praying for the protection against the relentless war that PAGAD
is wedging against them. They have turned to God and claim they are no longer
selling drugs. One is Hard Livings leader Rashied Staggie
whose brother Rashaad was murdered by PAGAD in 1996. |
Alvern Martins: |
The
gangsters are praying like never before. A sinner also loves his child. I saw
a two-year-old child whose leg was mutilated by PAGAD. |
Ivan
Waldeck: |
I
got a phone call from Rashied Staggie and he phoned
me and say, "Hi Ivan, I am quite excited. I was in church this
morning." And I said, "Oh really." I said, "Yes." He
told me that he had one of his brother suits Rashaad Staggie
suit. He had it on and he was in Durban Christian Centre. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
If
this is what is driving the gang leader into the arms of the preachers. PAGAD
and it's even more militant sister organisation Qibla. These muslim based vigilante groups declared war against drug
lords and gang leaders in early 1996. Their protest was scorned by the police
failure to combat crime on the Cape Flats. Based out and matched on the homes
of gang leaders and warn them that they would be executed unless they stop
the illegal activities. |
|
Police
intelligence started monitoring PAGAD in early 1996 and since heard a series
of farms and shooting rangers where the members of the organisation so called
GFs or Gun Force received training for the military campaign against the
gangsters. One of the police informant who had infiltrated PAGAD is a former
member of the 26 gang. He is also a Muslim and joined PAGAD at its inception.
He is known in the underworld as Hadji. |
Hadji: |
They
are highly trained good marksman. |
Speaker
6: |
How
do you know this? |
Hadji: |
Because
I have been in some of the places already. I have been on the farms where we
used to train. |
Speaker
6: |
And
they do target practise. |
Hadji: |
Target
practise, moving targets, running the same, like almost a military camp. |
Speaker
6: |
What
kind of weapon do they have? |
Hadji: |
Mostly
9 mil and shotguns and a couple of riffles. |
Speaker
6: |
Tell
us about the shooting range? |
Hadji: |
It
is a big farm in [inaudible]. They make like dummies with Staggie
names on and shoot at it. |
Speaker
6: |
What
other names do they shoot at? |
Hadji: |
Stanfield,
Jackie Lonte, Ahmad Thomas. |
Speaker
7: |
Kill
the militants. No to drugs. Kill the militants. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
The
police it seems largely ignored the warnings about the militants within
PAGAD. During the last days of July 1996 PAGAD issued a dead list of gang
leaders who must be killed. This video comes from the police archives. |
Speaker
8: |
[foreign
language]. Death to Naka, Death to Jackie Lonte,
death to Ahmad, death to [inaudible] death to Staggie,
death to [inaudible] Rashied and Rashaad the Staggies
the sentence on you is death. Death to Evans. If you do not give yourself up
in the following week [inaudible] and we will strike you for trying to
destroy our children [foreign language]. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
The
instructions to kill was issued. A few days later on August 4th 1996,
hundreds of PAGAD supporters gathered in a mosque in preparation for march on
assault of the home of Rashied and Rashaad Staggie.
The police even clearly warned about the intentions of PAGAD where ill
prepared and under-staffed for the events that follow that night. |
|
Rashaad
Staggie arrived at his home to assist his brother
who was kept inside by the PAGAD gunman. Police allowed him to continue and
he drove into the arms of the frenzy mob. What followed was one of the most
brutal murders in the history of Cape gang land. It was propitiated by a mob
of incited and murderous PAGAD supporters, who that night killed in the name
of Allah. |
|
Police
say that they couldn't assist the dying man as they were PAGAD snipers on the
roofs of the surrounding houses. His charred body laid in the road for close
to an hour before it could be retrieved. PAGAD members returned to the mosque
after the murder. |
Speaker
9: |
This
shows, what happened tonight, shows what happens when you put your trust in
Allah. And yes we can clear our society and rid our society of that scum. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
The
death of Rashaad Staggie started a vicious spiral
of violence between PAGAD, the gangsters and the police. As always innocent
people were trapped between the warring parties. We were astounded to
discover the apparent extent and success of PAGAD campaign and operation
against the gangsters. This is a secret military intelligence report compiled
in August last year. According to military intelligence 68 gangsters were
targeted by PAGAD in a five month period between March and July 1998. |
|
24
gang leaders and gangsters were killed. Many more were assassinated after
this period. The attack against the gangsters the report says were carried
out with military precision. The report mentions the names of gang leaders
and gangsters who they said had been murdered, injured or wounded by PAGAD. |
Wikus
H.: |
They
are not there for anything else, but to safeguard themselves and to take
somebody out, that they want to take out. |
Peter
Gastrow: |
Qibla
and some of it's related organisations and I think
PAGAD belongs to that. Is driven by a very small group, I believe of very
intelligent, committed but fundamentalist Muslim South Africans. |
Wikus
H.: |
If
they go for a person that is not an attempted murder, it's murder, it's
assassination. |
Peter
Gastrow: |
So
you have this very small militant, very intelligent, committed, passionate
group. |
Wikus
H.: |
And
they wait for the right moment, for the right place. And then one or two will
go for him, make sure that they kill him. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
In
March last year gangsters Katy-Ann Arendse and her husband Faried Davids died in a hail of
shot gun and R5 riffle fire outside one of the Shebeen in Cape Flats. The
murder carried all the whole marks of yet another PAGAD attack. Katy-Ann was
one of the only female gang leader on the Cape Flats. |
Gaynor
Wasser: |
Women
don't play a high profile ... You don't have a leadership role in gangs. As a
woman she played quite a high ... She had a big role to play within the
structure of the firm. She sat in on their meetings because it is not just
anybody that walks in to meetings such as that. She controlled quite a large
area. And she was married to quite high profile ... Her first husband was
quite a high profile gang leader. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
If
they was one gangster that PAGAD wanted dead, it was the American gang leader
Jackie Lonte, He has the dubious honour of
introducing crack into the Cape. Lonte brother
Edman was the first to be gun down in January last year. Jackie was
interviewed just after the killing of his brother. |
Jackie
Lonte: |
Two
children in a pick-up were shot. Another in a mini-bus. They took another
child who was in my yard and brutally killed him. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
10
months later the once untouchable Jackie Lonte met a
similar fate when he shot with an R5 riffle outside his home. The night
before the killing, PAGAD members were seen outside the residents. |
Wikus
H.: |
If
you look at the investigation and if you look at the threats against those
people, the Jackie Lonte's. Then there is no real
other way to look at it. That from the angle of PAGAD. They were definitely
involved. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
A
few days later Belhar gang leader Ernie Lepepa
Peters was shot, some say it was the Sexy Boys that ambushed him. Other lay the
blame for his death at the door of PAGAD. Lepepa
spent a week in hospital before he eventually died. |
Ivan
Waldeck: |
And
the first and the second visit he tells me, "Ivan, I surrender all my
wrongs doings and things and I tend to the Lord, to Jesus I give him my
heart." And I asked him Ernie did you give your heart to Jesus? So he
tell me, "Yes." |
Alvern Martins: |
Unable
to move his neck, he said God had given him another chance. I am living my
second life, by God's mercy. I have a second chance. |
Ivan
Waldeck: |
If
you repent and confess your sins God is faithful and just he will forgive you
your sins. And I believe that Ernie is at home with our heavenly father. |
Speaker
14: |
Despite
all the drugs the has sold. |
Ivan
Waldeck: |
The
drugs he has sold. Despite all killings if you are part of it. |
Speaker
14: |
Ivan
Waldeck and Alvern Martins conduct most of the
gangster funerals on the Cape Flats. |
Alvern Martins: |
I
have buried hundreds of people over the past two years. Many were PAGAD
murders, others the result of new conflicts. There were seven corpses that
Saturday. We started with the first one in Harlem street. There's three
corpses at the grave, and I have to preach at two more. It is only since the
trouble between PAGAD and the gangsters started, that the bodies have piled
up. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
The
luckiest man to be alive must be Mitchells Plain gang leader Dimes Madatt. PAGAD had allegedly tried to kill him several
times. In November last year he stopped his car outside his shebeen. |
Dimes
Madatt: |
I
looked in the mirror. Armed men got out of the car behind us. I shouted to my
mates to run for their lives. They started shooting, and I ran for cover. The
next thing I knew, I was on the ground. I was shot in the arm with a R5. It
bled a lot. What I thought of, was to smear the blood and flesh all over my
face. That helped me a lot. An attacker came to me. I knew I had to play
dead. The man was here to finish me off. I just lay there. |
|
He
said to his friends: this thing is dead. He took my gun, but there was no
movement. No breath. He walked away. They went in and shot four people. One
died. |
Speaker
16: |
Who
were the attackers? |
Dimes
Madatt: |
PAGAD. |
Speaker
16: |
Why
do you think you're still alive? |
Dimes
Madatt: |
The
man from above, with his mercy. It's not my time to die yet. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
This
was the third attack on Madatt's life. |
Dimes
Madatt: |
Death
is quick and unexpected. You can't wait for those people. You can wait for
2,000 years. The day you don't wait, they come. |
Ivan
Waldeck: |
Killing
a person, silent a person doesn't mean you stopped him, because there is
another Rashied who is gonna rise up. They is
another Colin Stanfield who is going to rise to the kill Collin. There is a
lot of Rashaad Staggie out there. And they is
foreigner Staggie also coming aboard. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
It
is not just the gangsters on the Cape Flats that are threatened by PAGAD. In
Sea Point in Cape Town we found Hansea Ace who is
the leader of the Hard Livings gang in the area. Hansea
and his men occupy the second floor of an old building in main street. In one
of the cities trendiest suburbs. He says he has been threatened several times
by PAGAD. |
Hansea: |
He
can come in here, but he's not just going to kill me. We're forced to keep a
few guns. I've been threatened many times. They want to kill me. I won't run. |
Speaker
18: |
Who
threatened you? |
Hansea: |
PAGAD.
I can't say who because of the disguises and placards. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
In
January last year one of the houses of Rasheid Staggie in Sea Point was attacked by masked gunmen. Four
people were shot dead and two wounded. Hansea came
across the scene. |
Hansea: |
They
were my friends. They died a horrible death. They were all young. |
Speaker
18: |
Why
were they killed? |
Hansea: |
Probably
the smuggling. They did nothing else wrong. They didn't rob people or break
into cars. They were in that house. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
Several
of the Cape most prominent drug lords and gang leaders have left the area out
of fear for PAGAD. Hard Livings leader Rashied Staggie
now lives in Meteo. While Colin Stanfield leader of
The Firm has moved to Johannesburg. Not only are the gangsters praying, but
they claim that they don't smuggle anymore. |
Ivan
Waldeck: |
And
I am not telling the people they must believe me out there, only time will
tell. But yes. Rashied is not smuggling anymore. I just know it in my heart. |
Kishor
Harri: |
That's
completely false because if these same gangsters who five years ago sell
drugs in the Cape Flats and suddenly they are saying that they stopped selling
drugs. Then why is the drugs trade still going on? Why are we still finding
drugs everyday on the Cape Flats? |
Wikus
H.: |
There
is no way that they can survive without the drugs and smuggling. They is no
way that they will stop it. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
Gangsters
like Hansea Ace who is an enthusiastic [inaudible]
drug himself claims that he and his gang of Hard Livings moved into Sea Point
10 years ago. They completely control the area. |
Hansea: |
Sea
Point was full of money. Big money. Nice money. Now it's gone. Money has to
be shared by many. At one stage, only we smuggled. It's now impossible to
stop. People are coming across the borders. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
While
the traditional gangs and drug dealers remain the biggest smugglers on the
Cape Flats and parts of Cape Town. A new bread of
drug merchants has moved in to the mother city. |
Kishor
Harri: |
It
is a well known fact that the Nigerians for
example, bring cocaine into the Western Cape. The Nigeria drug syndicates.
And our Cape Flat gangs then purchase part of cocaine from them or crack
cocaine to sell into the Cape Flats. |
Hansea: |
I
was stabbed by a Nigerian. |
Speaker
18: |
Why
did he stab you? |
Hansea: |
We
had an argument. We stabbed one another. I think I got the better of him. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
The
police have been severely criticised for the incompetence in dealing with the
drug lords the gangsters and PAGAD, for years the Staggies
in Lontes of Cape Flats acting without fear for
prosecution for them gangsterism and drug dealing have became
a way of life. Many say that PAGAD cannot be blamed for taking the law into
their own hands. |
Gaynor
Wasser: |
For
the past 11 years they has never been a drug lord high profile drug lord that
was ever convicted of his behaviour and misconduct in communities. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
But
despite all the killings the drug trade is alive and well and living. |
Gaynor
Wasser: |
We
don't believe that that is a route to take. To eliminate people. Because that
hasn't stopped, the drug trafficking, we still got our gangs in our communities. |
Kishor
Harri: |
The
killings of gang leaders or other senior gang members have by no means
stopped gangsterism or the drug trade. |
Gaynor
Wasser: |
Have
achieved absolutely nothing. Definitely not. They just installed more fear in
ordinary law abiding citizens. That is what they have achieved. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
The
police have not had any success against PAGAD. Last year in the Western Cape
they were more than 600 incidents of assassinations, killings, pipe
explosions, attack on police stations and other act of urban terrorism. |
Gaynor
Wasser: |
It
is disgusting and it is crying shame. That to date they has been 682 pipe
bombs, houses that were destroyed and things like that and not one
conviction. |
Wikus
H.: |
We
don't really have the support of the community. And you will find that on a
scene like Jackie Lonte even like Benny Lategan. They were people on the scene. They were people
that so everything. But they don't want to get involved. |
Peter
Gastrow: |
They
is great concern in Cape Town area that even cases that end up in court,
somehow don't go any further than discharge at an early stage or docket is
missing. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
The
Western Cape is gripped in a vice of terror and it's not only the gangster
and drug dealers that are dying. Members of PAGAD also been killed, either by
police or gangsters. Virtually every funeral start a new cycle of violence as
leaders incite their followers and promise retaliation. |
Speaker
20: |
In
the day we are hit a power of Hezbollah [inaudible] and the mujahideen, the
army, the police, the MIs, the NIS, Mossad and the corrupt clergies and
corrupt imams. They better disappear from the face of the earth. We are going
to hit you as hard as we are going to hit any enemy in this part of the
world. |
Shenid Bhayroo: |
The
police has also been in the firing line. A few days after this speech,
captain Benny Lategan was gunned down. He was at
the time investigating PAGAD related acts of violence. On Friday
superintendent Schalk Visagie former head of the PAGAD investigation team was
shot in similar fashion. Unlike Lategan, he
miraculously survived the attack. The police in the Western Cape have
launched operation good hope in an effort to curb the wave of urban
terrorism. In the meantime the war between PAGAD and the gangsters continues,
unless something is done. The killings will not stop. |
Alvern Martins: |
God
is the king of peace. Don't worry, it is going to be okay. It's going to be
all right. If something is at its worst it is about to end. |