Bloody weekend as 10 people killed in Cape Town taxi violence
28 May 2018
Authorities are monitoring various transport interchanges and high-risk areas in Cape Town after a surge in taxi violence left 10 people dead over the weekend.
The bloodshed is understood to be related to a battle over taxi routes.
A detective-led task team is probing the incidents. The most recent involved a 60-year-old man, who was shot dead in Capital Drive, Khayelitsha on Saturday night.
A woman, who was also hit, was taken to hospital, police spokesperson Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana confirmed.
Police deployed
Nine people were shot dead and three others injured between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.
On Saturday, a taxi driver was shot dead in the early hours of the morning in Sonwabile Street, Nyanga, while another was later gunned down in Entokozweni Street, Old Crossroads.
Another taxi driver was shot and killed at about 12:00 in Luzuko, Philippi East.
On Friday, a man in his 40s was shot and killed at Borcherds Quarry Road, Nyanga at about 17:45, and a 35-year-old man and a commuter were shot and injured on the corner of Emms Drive and Terminus Road.
Earlier that day, a 28-year-old man was shot at in Murom Road, Wynberg. He was not injured.
In Govan Mbeki Road in Philippi, a 40-year-old man was shot dead at about 17:00.
A 43-year-old man was shot and killed just after 17:00 in Govan Mbeki Road, Philippi East and a second man, aged 26, was killed at 18:30 in Ncinciba Street, Luzuko Park.
More than an hour later, a 27-year-old man was shot dead in Lower Crossroads.
A taxi driver was killed at 20:10 on the corner of New Eisleben Road and Sheffield Road in Philippi East that same day.
Two arrests
According to police, its tactical response and national intervention units were deployed at hotspots as "reaction forces to complement station deployments".
Officers arrested two people, aged 39 and 45, in Gugulethu on Friday night following a shooting incident in Wynberg, where a taxi driver was hit. Police seized two unlicensed firearms.
The traffic department, transport enforcement unit, Metro Police and law enforcement officials are also working alongside police to monitor the situation.
