A 17-year-old schoolboy has been shot dead and two others wounded in a drive-by shooting in Mitchells Plain.
Manuel Hamilton was gunned down in Diamond Street, Rocklands, on Friday night about 8pm, after buying a bompie and biscuits from a tuck shop around the corner from his home.
Witnesses say shots were fired from a white Toyota Conquest passing by.
The teen was in Grade 11 at the School of Hope in Observatory.
His mother Joan van Niekerk, 45, says she fought to keep her son away from skollies till the end, but it wasn’t enough to save him from a gangster’s bullet.
“Last year when I found out Manuel had a gang tattoo on his arm, I took him to a tattoo parlour to have it covered by another tattoo, I wasn’t going to allow my son to become a gangster,” Joan told Daily Voice yesterday.
She describes her youngest son as “troubled”, but that his life recently changed for the better.
“Manuel changed high schools thrice because there were bad elements attracting him at school,” she explains.
“In our area, you are classified as a member of the gang which lives around your school, so I took him out of the Mitchells Plain schools and placed him in the School of Hope in Observatory.
“Manuel didn’t want to be a skollie. When he started
at this school last year, we could see a change in his behaviour, he was abiding by my rules of being indoors by 8pm every night and 8.30pm on weekends.”
But on Friday night, she waited in vain for her son to come home.
As Joan stood by her gate just after 8pm, one of Manuel’s friends came to tell her he had been shot.
“I immediately rushed to the scene, but when I got there he was already dead,” she sobs.
Manuel’s friend who was with him, was injured in his upper body, while a man in the shop was shot in the foot.
Police spokesperson, Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana, confirms cases of murder and attempted murder have been opened.
“No one has been arrested at this stage.”
Joan, who resigned from the neighbourhood watch last year to give attention to her son, has now appealed to residents to fight crime.
“I want parents who have gangster kids to take action, stand up against drug lords. Let’s unite to keep our kids safe.”