Baby latest victim in Cape Flats gang warfare

At just nine months old, Amrah LeFleur’s bright smile had already won over neighbours in Athlone, Cape Town. This week, that smile was erased when she was gunned down in her home, one of five people killed in a late-night shooting that has once again exposed the brutal reality of life on the Cape Flats.

Amrah was killed alongside her mother, Naeema, and three others when gunmen opened fire shortly after 10pm on Tuesday. The attack came less than a week after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced during his state of the nation address that soldiers would be deployed to the Cape Flats to help curb escalating gang violence.

“The cost of crime is measured in lives lost and futures cut short,” Ramaphosa said, describing organised crime as “the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development”.

He said the government would strengthen gun control by streamlining legislation around the licensing, possession and trade of firearms and ammunition, and increasing enforcement of existing gun laws.

For residents in Athlone and across the Cape Flats, however, those promises ring hollow.

A neighbour, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, described the moment the gunfire erupted.

“We heard multiple gunshots. There was no screaming, just the deafening sound of bullets. Amrah was with her mother, a neighbour and two men,” she said.

She said Amrah’s older sister was not home at the time. “Oh man, she walks like a zombie now. She always took Amrah to the park. They were always together. I don’t even think she has eaten properly since it happened. She needs help.”

Residents say this was not the first violent incident at the house. “Three years back, three men were shot dead inside that same house. We heard rumours it was linked to drugs,” the neighbour said.

The violence has become so unrelenting it refuses to spare the most vulnerable. In the past year, the Cape Flats has seen a horrifying pattern of innocent young lives being taken by gunfire

—  EFF statement

The EFF said in a statement the infant’s murder highlighted how children were increasingly becoming collateral damage in gang warfare.

“The violence has become so unrelenting it refuses to spare the most vulnerable. In the past year, the Cape Flats has seen a horrifying pattern of innocent young lives being taken by gunfire,” the statement read.

Recent cases paint a grim picture:

• Alnika Mitchell, 14, was killed by a stray bullet while sitting outside her home in Kensington in December.
• A nine-year-old boy was shot dead inside a home in Mitchells Plain during a triple murder in December.
• Qadir Boer, 4, was shot in Hanover Park and later died in hospital in October.
• Four-year-old Davin Afrika was struck and killed in his yard in Wesbank in February last year.

In January alone, 26 people were reported killed in violent incidents across Cape Town.

Derica Lambrechts, associate professor in the department of political science at Stellenbosch University, said gang involvement, particularly among the youth, was rooted in deep structural and social failures.

“Gangs have evolved into alternative social organisations, offering young people a sense of belonging, economic opportunity and protection in the absence of a strong state presence,” she said. “They fill the void left by weakened state control. They offer employment, protection and even social goods, which makes them attractive to youth seeking stability and support.”

In areas such as the Cape Flats, she said, the state is often perceived as just one actor among many, rather than the dominant authority. This fragmentation of social control allows gangs to assert influence and legitimacy in communities.

Lambrechts pointed to the 2019 military deployment, which brought temporary calm to some hotspots. “A temporary stabilisation was observed in areas where the military was deployed. However, these areas reverted to conflict zones soon after the military withdrew. Stability achieved through military presence is short-lived and yields limited long-term impact.”

Militarising civilian areas remains a significant gamble. But we must also recognise that many communities are already living in conditions resembling conflict zones due to persistent gang activity

—  Derica Lambrechts, associate professor in the department of political science at Stellenbosch University

She cautioned that the military’s mandate differs fundamentally from that of the police. Soldiers are not deployed to gather evidence or build criminal cases.

“Militarising civilian areas remains a significant gamble. But we must also recognise that many communities are already living in conditions resembling conflict zones due to persistent gang activity.”

The Cape Crime Crisis Coalition (C4), a broad coalition of civil society organisations and community structures, has called on Western Cape premier Alan Winde to declare a provincial state of disaster. In a letter to the premier, C4 said its on-the-ground intelligence indicated gang violence was sharply escalating after a brief lull over the festive season.

“As you are well aware, gang leaders control the tempo of violence with chilling precision, switching terror on and off at will,” the coalition wrote, warning that Manenberg was on the brink of further escalation after the killing of a Hard Livings gang leader.

C4 said a disaster declaration would:

• activate the provincial disaster management centre;
• unlock emergency funding and procurement; and
• enable a co-ordinated whole-of-government response, uniting the Western Cape safety plan, SAPS anti-gang strategies and civil society initiatives under one framework.

Nicholas Gotsell, a DA member on the select committee for security and justice, said the Athlone shooting was “not only a criminal atrocity, but the direct consequence of failed leadership and weak accountability within the Western Cape SAPS”.

“The drug trade drives gang violence in the Western Cape. When police officers are implicated in that trade and allowed to remain in their posts, they become enablers of the very violence they are sworn to stop,” he said.

The DA has called on the provincial commissioner and the acting minister of police to explain why officers accused of corruption remain deployed in gang hotspots and what integrity measures, including lifestyle audits and vetting, are being implemented at high-risk stations such as Athlone.

For now, in a quiet circle of homes in Athlone, a pram stands empty. A sister mourns. A community counts yet another child lost to a war not of her making and wonders whether, this time, the promises of protection will mean more than just words.