Cape Town – About 35 shots were fired in Kensington, Cape Town, on Monday evening as members of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) held an anti-gang motorcade in the area, community police forum chairperson Mogamat Nordien said. 

“The situation is very volatile. We don’t know who is shooting, but I gave an instruction that no resident should go onto the roads,” Nordien told News24. 

“Kensington has not experienced this type of shooting in many years,” he claimed.

Nordien said he is aware of one house damaged by crossfire, but is not aware of any injuries. 

“Residents should stay in their houses for their own safety,” he reiterated. 

Sources with close ties to police told News24 that members of Pagad clashed with alleged gangsters, causing the surge in shootings.

Kensington residents took to Facebook to express their concern after hearing multiple gunshots in the area. One said it sounded like a “war zone”.

Western Cape police could not be reached for comment.

On Monday afternoon, on its official Facebook page, Pagad shared a post saying it will be in Kensington.

The post called for an end in all areas of on-going violence, shootings and killings.

“It will only stop if everyone joins together and says enough is enough! Join the motorcade.”

Pagad was formed in the 1990s to combat gangsterism on the Cape Flats. 

In 2003, the BBC reported that the once peaceful organisation deviated toward vigilantism. 

At the time, several Pagad members were awaiting trial on a range of charges including possessing explosives.

In 1996, the murder of Hard Livings gang leader Rashaad Staggie at the hands of Pagad members made national headlines.

His brother Rashied Staggie survives him. 

In 2016 Staggie and three other suspects faced charges of unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition, as well as suspected stolen property.

Staggie, serving prison time for another crime, was subsequently released on full parole.

In 2003 he was jailed for 15 years for his role in the kidnapping and rape of a teenage girl.

The following year he was sentenced to 13 years in jail for stealing firearms from a police armoury.

The sentences ran concurrently and Staggie served 11 years in prison.

WASHINGTON – North Korea’s foreign minister said on Monday that President Donald Trump had declared war on North Korea and that Pyongyang reserves the right to take countermeasures, including shooting down US strategic bombers even if they are not in the country’s airspace.

“The whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared war on our country,” Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told reporters in New York.

“Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country.”

READ: North Korea’s Kim vows to make ‘deranged’ Trump pay

Trump had warned the North Korean leader in his UN address last week Tuesday that the United States, f threatened, would “totally destroy” the country of 26 million people and mocked Kim as a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.

It was the US president’s most direct reference to military action so far against the North, which conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on September 3.

In addition to the nuclear test, North Korea has launched dozens of missiles since Kim came to power in 2011. Two recent ballistic missiles flew over Japan as Pyongyang advanced toward its goal of creating nuclear warhead-tipped missiles that can hit the United States.

Reuters