The People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) say they will never negotiate with gangsters and drug dealers.
This comes as the breakaway group, Pagad G-Force, are making waves on the Cape Flats in their fight against gangsterism and drugs.
In recent months, the group has been active in areas like Bridgetown, Kewtown and Silvertown.
In their latest outing, the G-Force assisted faith-based organisations that marched through Hanover Park on Sunday.
More than 3 000 mense took to the streets as they demanded a ceasefire between rival gangs and for merchants to stop their drug dealing.
Moulana Toha Rodrigues said: “They demanded them to surrender, and most of the gangs surrendered.”
In a statement released by Pagad on Facebook this week, the crime-fighting organisation, which has been quiet in recent times, said it had received numerous messages regarding the peace talks in Hanover Park.
“This is not Pagad, please be careful, these people are using the Pagad name. We as Pagad will never have these talks with gangsters and drug dealers,” the statement read.
“The religious leaders involved will have the blood of innocent people on their hands by having these talks.”
Spokesperson Nazeem Davids told the Daily Voice that G-Force broke away from Pagad in 2014 “due to their arrogance”.
“These are but two of the issues we had with them – their arrogance coming into a community and wanting to dictate to people what to do in their own area,” he explained.
“They’ve been in existence for roughly 30 years but fail to grow because of their medieval way of doing things.”
Pagad said it would issue a statement to clarify matters but had not done so by deadline last night.
byron.lukas@inl.co.za