- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: VIGILANTES KILL ALLEGED GANG LEADER IN CAPE TOWN
- Date: 4th August 1996
- Summary: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (AUGUST 4-5, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (AUGUST 4, 1996) 1. GV/LV EXTERIOR MOSQUE/ MOSLEMS ENTERING FOR PRAYERS, PRAYERS IN MOSQUE (3 SHOTS) 0.17 2. SCU PEOPLE AGAINST DRUGS AND GANGSTERISM (PADAG) LEADER MOHAMMED ALI PARKER (KNOWN AS "THE PHANTOM") ADDRESSING WORSHIPPERS (ENGLISH) 0.31 3. CU WORSHIPPERS ON THE FLOOR WITH RIFLES 0.39 4. SLV WOMEN LISTENING TO ALI PARKER 0.42 5. MV MOHAMMED ALI PARKER GETTING INTO VEHICLE, CONVOY OF CARS DRIVE OFF 0.53 6. MV MOHAMMED ALI PARKER AND MASKED MOSLEMS CHANTING 0.58 7. SLV GUNFIRE ERUPTS IN STREET, PEOPLE RUNNING 1.10 8. SLV INJURED MAN BEING CARRIED, WOUNDED MOSLEM TENDED ON STREET 1.32 9. LV MASKED AND ARMED MOSLEMS IN STREET (2 SHOTS) 1.43 10. MV ALLEGED DRUG BARON RASHAD STAGGIE ARRIVING IN HIS CAR AND ARGUING WITH MOSLEMS 1.50 11. SLV GROUP OF MOSLEMS AT DRIVER'S WINDOW ARGUING WITH STAGGIE, A SHOT IS FIRED, MEN RUN AWAY 1.57 12. SLV STAGGIE ON GROUND AT DOOR OF VEHICLE 2.04 13. MV PARAMEDICS SURROUNDING STAGGIE, PETROL BOMB THROW AMOUNG PARAMEDICS 2.19 14. SLV STAGGIE ON GROUND, STAGGIE BURNING, STAGGIE GETTING UP/ STARTING TO RUN, CROWD SHOUTING "ALLAH HU AKBAR" (GOD IS GREATER) 2.30 15. SLV STAGGIE FALLING TO GROUND, MOSLEMS BEATING HIM WITH LARGE STICKS, POLICEMAN DOUSES FLAMES WITH FIRE EXTINGUISHER 2.40 16. SLV STAGGIE STRUGGLING ON GROUND, POLICE SURROUND HIM 2.58 17. LV ARMED POLICE AT SITE, BODY CARRIED AWAY/ POLICE CORDON 3.09 (AUGUST 5, 1996) 18. LV CROWD GATHERED OUTSIDE VICTIM'S HOME FOR FUNERAL (3 SHOTS) 3.26 19. SLV COFFIN BEING CARRIED OUT 3.35 20. SCU TWIN BROTHER SAYING HIS DEATH WILL PROVE THAT WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM WILL NOT HAPPEN TO WHAT THEY CALL GANGSTERS AGAIN. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN. WE WILL FIGHT THEM (AFRIKAANS) 3.55 21. GV ZOOM FUNERAL PROCESSION, COFFIN 4.04 TRANSCRIPT SEQ. 2, PARKER, "THE POLICE FORCE IS FULL OF CORRUPTION AND THE LAW PROCESS HAS COLLAPSED. THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT THE DRUG LORDS AND THE GANGSTERS. I POSE ONE QUESTION TO YOU, I WILL NOT GO INTO DETAIL ABOUT ALL THE OTHER THINGS,I ASK WHY DO YOU NOT TAKE ACTION, WHY DO YOU NOT ARREST, OR INVESTIGATE THE DRUG LORDS." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 19th August 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
- City:
- Country: South Africa
- Reuters ID: LVA7WE08WN45JGGTU5R6N6X8AWU9
- Story Text: - INTRO: Thousands of people gathered outside the home of an alleged gang leader in Cape Town on Monday following his brutal murder by a crowd of vigilantes on Sunday evening.
------------------------------------------------------------ In the latest and most gruesome incident of a burgeoning war between community leaders and Cape Town's violent gangs, hundreds of Moslem men on Sunday (August 4) watched as alleged drug baron Rashad Staggie fled wounded and engulfed in flames before shooting him repeatedly.
The killing came after several hundred members of the Moslem movement People Against Drugs and Gangsterism (Padag) drove from their mosque to the home of Staggie's twin brother, Rashid.
The group was led by Mohammed Ali Parker who earlier addressed members at the mosque where he accused the police force of corruption and said legal process had collapsed. He said action was needed against Cape Town's gangsters and drugs barons and the police were doing nothing.
The twins, in their early forties, were known as leaders of the tough "Hard Livings Gang", one of several mixed-race Coloured gangs whose internecine war has made Cape Town the murder capital of Africa.
The Padag group came under fire as they approached the Staggie home in the Salt River district near the centre of Cape Town and scores of the Moslem men, nearly all of them masked with Balaclavas or scarves, produced firearms.
Shooting continued for more than 15 minutes with at least seven of the Moslem marchers wounded, one apparently seriously by a bullet wound in the head. Two newspaper reporters were also wounded.
As Rashad Staggie arrived at the scene, nosing his way through the crowd and through a police cordon, the crowd recognised him as one of the men they accuse of selling drugs to minor children and an argument erupted.
Staggie was shot at close range and fell to the ground outside his vehicle, where he was hit by several more bullets.
And as as paramedics arrived and leaned over him, a crude petrol bomb was thrown from the crowd.
Staggie got up and, covered in flames, ran about 30 metres while the crowd, shouting "Allah Hu Akbar" (God is Great), cleared a path and let him pass.
Staggie fell to the ground again. As he lay writhing, a policeman doused the flames with an extinguisher.
Police pushed the crowd back, but despite appeals to stop, masked men took it in turns to pump bullets into the dying man until he stopped moving.
Rachid Staggie, brother of the murdered man and co-leader with him of the Hard-Livings Gang hinted at war against the Padag (People Against Drugs and Gangsterism) vigilante group.
"His death will prove that what happened to him will not happen to what they call gangsters again. It will not happen. We will fight," he added.
A crowd of 2000 to 3000 people gathered outside Staggie's home before the funeral but their was no further violence.
Police made no arrests at the murder scene.
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