A Southern Suburbs family says they are in shock after a gang of thugs attacked patrons at Canal Walk over the weekend.
A video of the incident, which has gone viral on social media, shows the unidentified skollies punching and klapping other youngsters standing near the restaurants in the food court of the shopping centre.
One of the victims, a 16-year-old boy, was allegedly attacked and injured for not responding when confronted by the group.
According to his mother, Nadia Ross, the teen was asked whether or not he was in a gang but remained quiet because he was not comfortable speaking in Afrikaans.
Nadia said: “My son wasn’t comfortable speaking with these boys and he didn’t have to. He didn’t know them but that was all it took for them to attack him like hungry dogs fighting over a bone.
“My son is traumatised and so are we how could something like this happen in such a public space? I can’t just let this go without raising awareness about the effects of such incidents on our society.”
The mother says her son was at the mall on Saturday evening to attend a friend’s birthday dinner, accompanied by his family, who split up from him when he spotted his friends and headed to the mall’s food court.
She says: “The incident took place less than 10 minutes before the mall was to close. I remember how we got a call at about 8.55pm to say a gang was attacking my son. As a mother, nothing prepares you for something like that, and nothing can ever make an experience like that okay.
“We will be lodging a formal complaint with the police, we have already been to Maitland SAPS, as advised by Canal Walk, to open up a case.”
The Daily Voice reached out to Canal Walk’s management for comment and but were requested to call back after the holiday break.