Hanover Park residents are living in fear after separate gang-related shootings near the Moray Court flats left two men dead and three other people wounded on Saturday morning.
Gunfire rang out across the community, with a 46-year-old man shot and fatally wounded in John Vlei Walk.
In John Vlei Walk, a 46-year-old male was shot and fatally wounded.
Western Cape SAPS spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg said Philippi police responded to the incidents on Saturday, October 31, 2026.
“In John Vlei Walk, a 46-year-old male was shot and fatally wounded. He sustained gunshot wounds to his body and was declared deceased on the scene by medical personnel.”
In Surran Road, a 19-year-old man was also shot and killed. Three other victims who sustained gunshot wounds were taken to medical facilities for treatment.
Twigg added: “The motives for these attacks are believed to be gang-related, and arrests are yet to be made.”
He said SAPS and other law enforcement agencies had been deployed to the area and were conducting “crime prevention initiatives to maintain law and order”.
Hanover Park Community Police Forum (CPF) spokesperson Kashiefa Mohammed confirmed the incidents were drive-by shootings in different parts of the area.
She told IOL Media that gangs were turning on each other across the neighbourhood and called for more police in the gang-infested area.
“Gangs across the whole of Hanover Park are fighting each other. We need more boots on the ground.”
She questioned where the army was, alleging millions were spent on SANDF troops, but they were not visible in the area.
Mohammed added: “Where is the army? They were paid millions, but we don’t see them in Hanover Park. Why aren’t the shotspotters and cameras working?”
“At 6pm at night, it is like a ghost town. Bullets riddle the area 24/7. Our children can’t play.”
She said the shootings did not spare the vulnerable or the young.
“Shootings happen when people go to work and when children come out of schools. These gangsters feel no remorse for who they shoot,” she said.
Mohammed said a mentally ill man “who did no harm to anyone” was shot behind Walvis Court on Friday night.
A young girl who was shot near Walvis Court on Thursday morning also died on Friday night.
“Our children are dying. It needs to stop,” Mohammed said.
She appealed to residents to stand together against the gangs.
“To the community of Hanover Park, take back your streets, your courts. Break the silence. Why must gangsters keep us hostage? Let us join hands and combat this evil crime of gangsters taking over.”
No arrests have been made.
