Boy, 7, wounded in shooting recovering well
SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Toufique Johnson is recovering well in hospital, and is even sitting up and drawing, after being hit by a stray bullet that penetrated his Manenberg home while he was sleeping.
His mother, Shafieka Johnson, said doctors had been unable to remove the bullet that lodged in her son’s kidney a week ago and if it was taken out, “the kidney will be destroyed”.
Johnson said yesterday that a doctor said Toufique looked “good to go home. He can sit up and draw and get out of bed… We are out of ICU, we are in a ward now, we are almost there, but small steps,” she said.
Recalling what happened on the day her innocent son was shot in an allegedly gang-related incident, Johnson said all she had heard was gunshots.
“Then I heard Toufique screaming – so I switched on the lights, and when I switched on the lights, I saw blood.”
Johnson said Toufique was ready to go home from hospital.
“All his other organs are alright. He’s fine, he is doing very well and looks better now, than before. Toufique wants to go to his own home,” she said.
She said they would soon be going back to Manenberg, but they would be staying at her sister’s home.
Provincial health spokesperson Mark van der Heever said: “The patient
is in a stable condition and medical staff are happy with his recovery and progress.”
Following the incident, residents have called on the SAPS to “clean-up” Manenberg.
Ward councillor Aslam Cassiem said it grieved and angered him that a child should live with a bullet lodged in his kidney.
“We pray for his health, but we are also angry that this awful condition he is in is as a result of the gang violence perpetrated in our neighbourhoods.
“These gang members are youth that went to school together, kicked a ball together and generally enjoyed their youth together.
“They are now reverting to fighting each other – violently so because of their respective gang affiliations. We call on all these gang members to stop the violence,” he said.