Life imprisonment for three gang members

THREE Uitbyter gang members from Worcester received life imprisonment in the Western Cape High Court after assaulting and setting alight a 27-yearold Junior Cisko Yakkies (JCY) gang member in Avian Park in May last year.

Judge Andre le Grange found the three accused – Deon “Hakel” Smith, Andrew “Whitey” Jordaan and Abraham “Allies” Lewies – guilty and sentenced them to life in prison for murder.

Western Cape Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant-General Khombinkosi Jula said the deceased was brutally assaulted with blunt objects, stabbed several times and burned beyond recognition while he was still alive. Jula said he welcomed the sentencing, which served as a deterrent to other gangsters who relentlessly terrorise communities in the Western Cape.

However, Worcester Community Policing Forum chairperson Russel Cupido disagreed with Jula and said although justice was served, three more lives were lost and the sentence would not deter youth from partaking in violence. “The Uitbyters developed as a reaction against gangsterism in the area, but the thing you fear the most is

‘IF WE DON’T RESTORE HOPE, THIS VIOLENCE WILL CONTINUE IN THE AREA’

what you become,”said Cupido.

Cupido explained that the Avian Park community lacked basic services such as tarred roads, good educational institutes and its own police station. He said these factors, alongside growing unemployment among youth, who only find seasonal work, encouraged gangsterism.

He said the overriding factor of hopelessness experienced among youth in the area drove them to violence. “If we don’t restore hope, this will continue. We need to get people into decent work. Seasonal work doesn’t count as there is no pension.

We need a brick-and-mortar police station – which was needed 20 years ago, and not only yesterday. Action needs to be taken.”