‘Hit-style’ killing has EL family living in fear

Vergenoeg shooting raises number of slayings suspected to be linked to drug underworld to nine

Are we going to wait for another brother to be taken out? We have been getting threats

The slaying in broad daylight of an East London man outside his home has left his family traumatised and fearing for who might be next.

Still grieving after the killing of her younger brother, Eldane Postman, last year, Ronell Gysman now has to face burying her other brother, Navin Davis, who was gunned down on Saturday.

Davis, who had previously allegedly been involved in the drug trade, was shot outside his home in Vergenoeg, allegedly by two men who fled in a getaway car.

Gysman was devastated when she spoke to the Dispatch, saying the grieving family was terrified.

She said she feared that the shootings were no longer drugrelated, but personal.

She said footage of the incident showed that two cars may have been involved.

“I can’t really tell. We don’t know what’s next.

“A few months back we went to the Hawks.

“Are we going to wait for another brother to be taken out? We have been getting threats.

“A few days back, guys tried to force themselves in. The police came, but there was nothing after that.”

She said police had told the family that the Hawks had taken over the case of her younger brother, but they had never approached them again.

“We are fighting a losing battle here,” she said.

“We are living a horrible movie here. We are running our business from home and we have to check everything.”

A police officer who spoke to the Daily Dispatch anonymously said police had information about who might be behind the hits, but were hanging back on making arrests.

Police spokesperson W/O Majola Nkohli said: “It is alleged that two men accosted the victim and fired several times.

“The victim was declared dead at the scene.

“It is believed that two male suspects used a white Ford sedan as a getaway vehicle.

“Police are following all leads.

“They are also urging anyone with information that could lead to the arrest of the suspects to contact the nearest police station.”

Nkohli declined to speculate about any connection between the victim and the drug underworld.

“We will not be able to speculate because we do not yet have information regarding what led to the shooting.

“We will not know if it’s drugrelated. We would appreciate it if someone with information could communicate with the police,” said Nkohli.

He said the victim had suffered gunshot wounds to the upper body.

“Police are following leads. We are checking if we can find information about a car that was travelling in that area at the time so that we can see if we can’t link it to the crime scene.”

The shooting raises the number of killings suspected to be linked to the drug underworld to nine in the area since the beginning of 2021.

The Daily Dispatch has been reporting on the executionstyle shootings.

The most recent slaying involved a couple who were shot while inside their vehicle in the early hours of the morning on August 14.

They were said to have been sitting in their bakkie at their Parkridge home after coming back from a club.

The woman gunned down in that shooting was a nurse at Frere Hospital.

In a statement after the killing, health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth described the woman as someone who had dedicated her life to the nursing profession.

A week earlier, on August 6, another couple were shot dead inside their home in CC Lloyd by two gunmen.

The gunmen got into their house, pushed aside a 14-yearold who was by the door and proceeded to shoot the couple.

Sources told the Dispatch that the woman allegedly had ties with a known drug lord who was killed earlier this year in a hail of bullets.

In January, Allan “Slums” Dreyer was shot dead while travelling with close family friend Charlie Brown in a white Toyota bakkie.

The incident happened in Parkside.

They were accosted by three gunmen who started shooting at them while they were at the Caltex garage in Parkside’s main road.

Their shooting followed several other killings which involved people with alleged links to the drug underworld the previous year.

Gibraltar “Bolte” Davis, who was a son of self-confessed drug lord Livingstone Napoleon, was gunned down execution-style in May last year.

The incident happened in Parkridge on a Saturday night.

Davis was shot multiple times while driving in Parkridge Road. Cash totalling R18,000 was found in his car and police sources told the Dispatch that they had found 16 empty cartridges.

His son, Domonique Davis, offered a reward of R100,000 late last year to help find his father’s killers.