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Court slaps ban on 'gangster'
08/04/2008 21:09 - (SA)
Cape Town - The Treatment Action Campaign won a restraining order on Tuesday against an alleged Khayelitsha gangster whom it says has been terrorising its members.
It said the man, Yanga Janet, had shot and wounded one TAC member and made death threats against others, and that it had had to move three of its members to a safe house.
Janet was one of four people charged with the 2005 rape and murder of 18-year-old TAC member Nandipha Makeke.
Although he and one of the others were discharged for lack of evidence, the remaining two were sentenced this week to 20 years' jail each.
TAC said in papers filed in the Cape High Court that Janet was conducting a vendetta against its members in the Harare area of Khayelitsha as a result of the case and the organisation's general campaign against gender violence.
TAC national chairperson Nonkosi Khumalo said in an affidavit: "Janet has embarked on a campaign of violence and intimidation directed at members and associates of TAC,".
"Janet is clearly capable of carrying out his threats as he not only has the character of a thug, but he also carries an illegal firearm and can call on fellow gangsters to do his bidding because he is a leader of a gang."
She said the application was being brought with the full backing of the Khayelitsha police, who found themselves unable to deal effectively with the TAC's complaints.
TAC worker Isaac Mangwana said in a separate affidavit that on the day Makeke was killed, he and three others were walking down a street discussing the murder when Janet, sitting on a street corner, pulled out a gun and shot at him, but missed.
"He shot again and hit Mandla Nunkuma below the left shoulder blade," Mangwana said.
Death threats
Although they laid a complaint of attempted murder, the docket went missing and had been found only recently.
Since then, Janet and his associates had repeatedly threatened to kill him and other TAC members.
Acting Judge Richard Brusser granted the order, which bars Janet from intimidating, harassing, assaulting, injuring, harming or threatening TAC members, especially those wearing TAC T-shirts or those of the Similela rape crisis centre.
The prohibition also applies to his "associates".
Brusser set May 22 as the date on which Janet could come to court to argue against the restraining order being made permanent.
Nkunkuma told Sapa after the hearing that he was not completely reassured by the court order.
"He can do something, even today, because he's always carrying a gun," he said.
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