Joe Slovo is on edge again after another shooting there, last week.
On Tuesday June 29, a man in his 40s was shot and critically wounded in a drive-by shooting at the Joe Slovo taxi rank.
Residents suspect it was an attempted hit – although police have not confirmed this – and they point to a shooting near the rank less than two months ago that claimed the lives of two men.
Provincial SAPS spokesman Colonel André Traut said police were investigating an attempted murder.
”It is believed that an adult male was shot at the Joe Slovo taxi rank on Tuesday afternoon and drove himself to a medical facility where he is being treated. No one has been arrested as yet,” he said.
Residents say the man was a taxi owner but many refuse to speak about the incident. Community leaders have also been tight-lipped about it.
A resident, who did not want to be named, said they feared a taxi war was brewing and they didn’t feel safe.
“We don’t want to be caught in the crossfire. We know there are always innocent people getting hurt or killed because of fights, whether it’s a gang fight or a taxi war. We are just living in prayer because, yes, we need the taxis, but we don’t want to lose our lives because of whatever they are fighting about. We use the taxi service because it’s convenient and affordable. We live here in Joe Slovo because we can afford to live here and schools are close by for our kids and it’s convenient for us to get to work. We don’t want to live in fear.”
According to ER24 spokesman Russel Meiring, the man was shot in a drive-by shooting, and paramedics, who were parked at the hospital, responded at 1.46pm and found a car that had been riddled with bullets.
“The light motor vehicle was parked in the middle of the road against a truck. A man was found lying inside the light motor vehicle. Medics assessed the man and found that he had sustained several gunshot wounds, leaving him in a serious condition. The man was treated and provided with pain-relief medication before he was transported to Mediclinic Milnerton for stabilisation. Shortly after, the man was transported to another hospital for further care,” he said.
In April, two men were shot and killed while sitting in a car in Freedom Way, not far from the taxi rank (“Joe Slovo on edge after double killing,” Tabletalk, April 21). One of the victims in that incident was also known to be a taxi owner.
Table View police spokeswoman Captain Adriana Chandler would not divulge the identity of the man wounded in the latest shooting.
Wade Seale, the spokesman for Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz, said: “The department shares the concerns of communities and has put in place a number of measures under the auspices of the Western Cape Safety Plan to bring an end to the violence in the Western Cape.”
Taxi drivers at the Joe Slovo rank declined to comment.
According to the South African National Taxi Council’s provincial spokesman, Gershon Geyer, Joe Slovo falls under the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (CATA). Cata general secretary Mandla Hermanus did not respond to phone calls, SMSes and WhatsApp messages by the time of publication.
