After many efforts by the community activist within the Manenberg Safety Forum, rival gangs in the area have agreed to halt all gang shootings. A meeting at the weekend resulted in a verbal agreement with gang leaders from the Clever Kids, Hard Livings, Americans and Dixie Boys, to restore peace within the community. Residents on the streets told VOC News that for the first time in months, they were able to enjoy the freedom of sitting outside and watching their children play without fear of being caught in a gang shooting cross fire.

“We made a lot of dua for this agreement…it was not easy. I live in the middle of the Hard Livings territory and all my family and I could do was sit in our house as shootings broke out. That is no way to live. Here, today, I had to cross rival gang territories to get to my friend but I can sit here without the worry of having to walk home again,” said resident Fatimah Philander, sighing with relief.

Philander’s sentiments were echoed by other residents, many of them mothers sitting outside as their children played. Kathleen Daniels said that she could now walk to Nyanga Junction without looking over her shoulder.

“This truce has brought calmness back to our community,” Daniels said.

The Manenberg Safety Forum chairperson Rugshanda Pascoe said while the truce agreement has already brought peace to the community some areas are still hard hit by gang fighting. The community, led by the forum, will once again meet with gang leaders this week to sign a declaration for peace in order to hold gang leaders accountable for the conduct of their so-called “soldiers” in their organisations. More often than not, Pascoe said, soldiers begin fights with their enemies without the knowledge of their leaders.

“We sent members of the safety forum and community activist to go into the gang leaders homes and meet in a bid to create a open communication line between gangsters and the community. After not showing up for community meetings on numerous occasions, we finally managed to get gang leaders in one place, set aside their differences and share our concerns,” Pascoe explained.

“There was no time frame with this truce. We said we are going to work through a process. The gangsters in partnership with us will try and resolve fights still breaking out in parts of Manenberg. This is a work in process,” Pascoe continued.

While details of the meeting with gangsters could not be revealed at this point, Pascoe said that the discussions centred around the impact gang violence has on the broader community, especially the youth.

“We need a closed and secure room to once again meet with gangsters on a later stage. We are in agreement with gang leaders that we don’t want shootings in our community anymore. The fact remains, they haven’t just hurt each other….they have hurt this community. You owe this community answers because you’ve killed our children. We need to put alternatives in place to prohibit these violent fights to happen again…that is where we need government to step in.”

Young residents are now able to join in on school holiday programmes as the fear to walk about in public is no longer the order of the day. VOC (Ra’eesah Isaacs)