Westbury residents feel like they are living in a war zone

Westbury residents in Johannesburg say the scale of the violence has left them feeling as though they are living in a war zone.

This follows a shooting that claimed the lives of three young men on Saturday night.

Police say the victims, aged between 18 and 20, were shot inside a flat in the area.

Two other people were wounded.

Community leader Humphrey Birkenstock says, “We realised that we are in a war zone, Westbury is a war zone, everybody in this community either they are related to someone who was killed, shot, or they know someone or a neighbour.

The rest of the community is gripped in fear; people are scared to go out in the street.” He also says the killings have reached a point where he no longer believes marches and petitions will bring change.

Anti-gang activist and member of the Gauteng Legislature Bishop Dulton Adams says, “I refuse to march any longer; I refuse to lead the community into any other memorandums or petitions.

It does not work.

What needs to happen is we need to bring the security cluster… they must tell us what is their security plan that they have.

Why hasn’t Operation Prosper worked the way it was intended to work?” Adams has also raised concerns over the calibre of weapons being used in the area, saying the presence of Uzi machine guns points to a worrying escalation in the violence.

He says, “The fact that Uzi machine guns are being used, it’s the first time that I see it, which actually tells me that this gang war and this hatred and killings has gone to another level.” Adam says authorities need to conduct deeper intelligence operations in communities to establish where the weapons are coming from.

For now, police continue to search for the suspects, while residents say they are desperate for an end to the bloodshed.

VIDEO | Several shot and killed in Westbury: