Daily Sun (October 21 2013) - IT was a ten-hour rampage fuelled by years of rage. Residents joined hands, fighting to take back control of their kasi from the Wrong Turn gang. AND BY SUNSET FIVE HOUSES AND TWO SHACKS HAD BEEN BURNT TO THE GROUND.
The meeting of residents from Eatonside, Tshepong and zone 7, Sebokeng, in the Vaal, south of Joburg, held a public meeting in Eatonside on Saturday morning to talk about attacks last week which reportedly left several people injured.
When Daily Sun arrived at the meeting emotions were already running high and then the residents launched what became a violent 10-hour manhunt. "We're sick and tired of thugs ruling our areas. Enough is enough," said a resident.
The mother of a victim of an attack by the Wrong Turn gang said: "I will help hunt them down even if it means I don't sleep tonight. They almost killed my son."
Hundreds of young men and women surged through the streets burning down several houses and shacks as they searched for gangsters belonging to the Wrong Turn gang. According to residents, the Wrong Turns are a group of more than 50 hooligans in their teens or early 20s. They have all been to initiation schools and terrorise people as they roam the streets at night. Members of the gang are reportedly responsible for several attacks on community members using pangas and machetes.
Residents started in Tshepong, where they torched a house believed to be a gang hideout. The mob also broke the windows of two other houses in the area known to be the homes of Wrong Turn members. Then they went to Eatonside, where three more houses and a shack where torched.
Police and firefighters were called to the scene but the people crossed the railway line into Sebokeng zone 7, where they burned a shack believed to be that of a gang leader.
As police rushed to the burning shack, angry people moved to another gang member's house, also in zone 7, and burnt it to the ground.
The residents then returned to Eatonside and back-up cops from the tactical response team, the K-9 unit, public order policing, the flying squad and police officers from Sebokeng and Vereeniging soon arrived in a convoy of cars.
Residents caught a teenage girl who is alleged to be a member of The Vampires, a female gang who are girlfriends of the Wrong Turn. The terrified girl took them to the house of an inyanga who allegedly gives Wrong Turn members muthi to make them invincible.
Cops had to fire rubber bullets to rescue the girl but the windows of the house of the sangoma were shattered.
Cops found a deep hole covered with zinc in the yard of the sangoma. The hole, as deep as a grave, had pots and a woman's bra in it. Residents said they had seen smoke rising from the pit.
Late in the afternoon after cops finally managed to disperse the crowd, it emerged that among the angry residents were members of Jeepers Creepers or Mabench, a rival gang who had a score to settle with the Wrong Turn gang.
Police spokesman Constable Tshifhiwa Mitileni said no arrests had been made and cops would continue to monitor the situation.
"We will wait for the fire department's report before opening cases of arson," he said.
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