Pubdate: Fri, 03 Aug 2012
Source: New Age, The (South Africa)
Copyright: 2012 TNA Media (Pty.)
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/5339
Note: http://www.thenewage.co.za/
Author: De Wet Potgieter

KILLING FIELDS OF FAIR CAPE

The killing fields on the Cape Flats are all about drugs and a turf
war on behalf of the stinking rich drug lords living in comfort and
safety in the upmarket suburbs of the city of Cape Town.

They live there as "respected" citizens rubbing shoulders with law
abiding people on Fridays at the mosques, on Saturdays in the
synagogues and on Sundays at church.

Organised crime have now grown into a sophisticated "business venture"
of bartering between the main international suppliers of the raw
materials for the manufacturing of designer drugs in South Africa, and
rhino horn, perlemoen and shark fins.

While the young foot soldiers are being used as cannon fodder in the
streets of Hanover Park, Manenburg, Lavender Hill and other theatres
of gang wars to secure the supremacy for the mobsters of the drug
trade, their children attend the most expensive private schools and
their wives and mistresses thrive in the most revolting lifestyle with
the rich and famous.

According to intelligence sources and sources connected to the gangs,
the police will never be able to find a solution to the gang violence
because they are in fact part of the problem.

The New Age was told by police sources, and which information was
corroborated by the national coordinator of Pagad (People Against
Gangsterism and Drugs), Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim, that too many corrupt
police officers on the payroll of the gang bosses make it impossible
for the police in the Western Cape to launch any successful raid on or
investigation into gangster strongholds on the Cape Flats.

As the bloody violence and revenge attacks between the gangs continue
in the suburbs, Ebrahim told TNA in an interview that Pagad is ready
for action against the hoodlums.

Pagad will soon start with protest marches to their fancy houses in
the rich areas of Cape Town, he said. "We will be knocking on their
front doors very soon."

Top figures in the Cape Town underworld also believe that the
assassination of Cyril Beeka in March last year had upset the
equilibrium in stemming turf wars on the Flats.

Although Beeka, whose security company controlled the clubs and
entertainment areas of Sea Point and Cape Town for years, was never
linked to any particular gang. His role as peacemaker was regarded as
a stabilising factor whenever differences surfaced between the gang
leaders.

The Italian Mafioso, Vito Palazzolo who was arrested in Thailand last
year and is now fighting his extradition back to his homeland, Sicily,
was also, according to underworld sources, a kind of "stabiliser" in
the sense of the "respect" for his way of running his business
operations in Cape Town.
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