Cape Town - As the Bonteheuwel A and B Blocks areas are seeing an increase in gang shootings due to what ward councillor Angus McKenzie says is the early release of gang members from prison, the Wilson family were mourning the death of their son who was killed for allegedly refusing to join the gangs.
Twenty-eight-year-old Jermaine’s life was cut short on Sunday afternoon by three men who stabbed him multiple times in the chest. He died in hospital two hours after the incident.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Jermaine’s aunt, Mary Hendricks, said they were distraught and still coming to terms with his passing.
She said it was especially tough for Jermaine’s fiancée, Simone, with whom he was planning a wedding for early next year. Jermaine leaves behind two children, aged two and five.
“It is just sad that he won’t see his first-born going to school for her first year or seeing how his kids will grow up,” she said.
Hendricks said they were a tight-knit family and the incident had shaken them.
“It is really heartbreaking for a guy like Jermaine, that wouldn’t hurt anyone, to die in such a manner. We feel like we would have accepted his death if he was sick and died in his sleep. But those criminals hurt him. He had stab wounds on his body,” she said.
Hendricks said Jermaine drank and smoked, but he was a quiet person who would never have joined a gang.
“Not everyone or everybody aspires to be a gangster and to me, it seems as if it was jealousy that made them stab him like that,“ she said.
She said the family were planning on burying him on Friday.
McKenzie said the only way to keep Bonteheuwel safe and maintain its safety was for the relationship that currently exists between the community and law enforcement agencies to continue.
Police spokesperson FC Van Wyk said a 21-year-old man was arrested in connection with the murder and will appear in court once charged. He said Bishop Lavis detectives were still investigating the murder case.
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