Foreign shop owners are reportedly fighting each other for turf in Delft, and are in cahoots with extortionists.
The clashes have led to the murder of a Somali man and attempted murder of a pregnant woman in N2 Gateway on Monday night.
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk confirms: “The circumstances surrounding a shooting incident in Aberdare Street, N2 Gateway, Delft on Monday evening, where a 35-year-old man was shot and fatally wounded and a 30-year-old female wounded are under investigation.
“Police members attended to a complaint of a shooting and upon arrival on the scene, they found the victims inside a shop with gunshot wounds to their bodies. The 35-year-old victim was declared deceased on the scene by medical personnel, while the other victim was taken to a medical facility for medical treatment in a private vehicle.
“The motive for the attack is yet to be established. The suspect/s fled the scene and are yet to be arrested.”
He said the Delft police are investigating murder and attempted murder cases.
The Delft Community police forum (CPF) says the turf war has prompted them to force shops to close earlier at night.
CPF chairperson Reginald Maart says although some of the cases are extortion-related, others involve foreign nationals attacking each other over territory.
“They have their own mafia operating in the area and then we got a problem where they pay gangsters to look after them and then it’s a ‘you can’t open (a shop) here because I’m here already’ type of situation,” he explains.
“When the foreign shop owners came into the area, they didn’t mind sharing space but now things have changed. Ethiopians, Nigerians and Somalis are fighting among themselves,” says Maart.
“Now they fight about having more than one shop in the same street. And we believe that the foreigners influence extortion because they pay for protection, this is what we picked up. And some of them are paying gangsters to stop people from opening up businesses, and these are different kinds of businesses and not just spaza shops.”
Maart says it is difficult to monitor and prevent shootings because there aren’t enough police vehicles.
“We close shops sometimes at 9 or 10pm, and they don’t want to close and they sometimes close and then when you leave, they open again.
“The young kids hang around the shops until late. We introduced Operation Lockdown on weekends and told them to close at 10pm, but we still find people after 11pm going to the shops. You can’t police this, people don’t listen to us.”