Just months after crime fighters raised the alarm about child gangs fighting for turf in Manenberg, a 17-year-old boy has been killed.
The heartbroken mother of Dieago Shaun Daniels, 17, has been left traumatised after he was stabbed in the heart in a suspected retaliation attack.
Single mom Rosea, 40, says she fought continuously with her son when she heard he had joined a gang.
“He was part of the KGBs and when I heard, I was very hartseer. This stone throwing is out of hand and has escalated to these laaities now running around with knives and machetes, she says.
“Dieago was in Grade 8 at Manenberg High School and because of his involvement in these fights, he had to leave school because the boys would attack him,” says Rosea.
“When I found out he was involved, I went to grab him out of those fights and took him home every time.”
She says on Monday she was in Manenberg Avenue when neighbours came running to inform her that her son had been stabbed.
“What I was told is that one gangster who allegedly tried to stop the fights called Dieago to Karen Court. He went there and one of the boys stabbed him.
“When I got there, they already loaded him in a car and we went to Heideveld [Emergency Centre].
“The doctor said she couldn’t say if it was a knife or a screwdriver he was stabbed with, but it crushed his ribs and he was stabbed in the heart,” the mom adds.
Police spokesperson, Sergeant Wesley Twigg, confirms the incident and says a 16-year-old boy was arrested and appeared in the Athlone Magistrates’ Court yesterday on a charge of murder.
In December last year, Manenberg SAPS station commander, Brigadier Sanele Zama, said the laaities had formed gangs, called the KGBs, the Okka Boys, the Lover Boys, the Vikings and the Luxury Kids.
Each day the gangs would meet at the circle on The Downs Road where they would pelt each other with stones in their in turf battles.
Rosea begged parents to unite and stop the fights before another child is killed.
“I was walking in the Eight Courts and was caught between two gangs fighting.
“I shouted at them to stop and told them my child died like this and they got a skrik and something made them stop,” she says.
“During the times I fetched my son from the fights, I used to see how the grootmense stand and cheer them on.
“My appeal to parents is to unite and stop these fights before more lives are lost.”
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