COMMUNITY FIGHT TO HAVE ROCKLANDS MURDER HOUSE CONDEMNED

ANGRY and concerned Mitchells Plain community members are calling for a murder house in Rocklands to be demolished after nine-year-old boy Zechariah Matthee was shot dead in a mass shooting on Wednesday. 

Zechariah was killed along with two other persons, including his aunt, Cleo Bailey, 19, and a male, Mougsheen Daniels, 26, while two others escaped with gunshot wounds.

Angered residents including the Community Policing Forum (CPF), Civic Organisations and ratepayers have called for the house at 10 Viscount Street to be condemned under the City’s Problem Building Unit (PBU), citing the house is a known “pela pos” where several shootings have taken place.

In August, two men aged 37 and 40, were shot and killed at the same residence in Viscount Street during a gang-related incident.

The house is believed to be the stronghold of the Fancy Boys gang, having previously been run by the Hard Livings gang in the past, with rivals the Americans on their doorstep.

On Wednesday, Wayne Dyason, spokesperson for the City’s Law Enforcement confirmed the premises was not listed under the PBU which has 922 buildings in their bundle, 35 percent of which are active investigations.

It is understood the house belonged to an elderly woman who has since died with her children and grandchildren living there.

Mitchells Plain Community Policing Forum chairperson Norman Jantjies said: “We can confirm that the house is a problem house known as a pela pos. It was a scene of previous shootings and murders. We are saying that the incident is gang related.

“A resident who asked not to be named called for the house to be petrol bombed and destroyed, asking: “How many more must die?”

Jantjies also pleaded with rival gangs to create a ceasefire as the school holidays begin.

Ward councillor Danny Christians said he would see to it that a report follows for the house to be listed as a PBU.

“This is a problem building and it needs to be recorded as such,” he said.

“I have been to the premises several times and once the city finishes the report then we can take it forward. 

“That it is a problem building and that it must be shut down and with evidence provided.”

Linda Jones of the CPF and Mitchells Plain United Residents Association (MURA) said: “The grandmother has indicated that she wants to sell the house following the deaths. She does not want to be in that house anymore.”