Living a ‘borrowed life’ on the Flats — Philippi residents describe daily murder, extortion horror

Philippi is on Cape Town’s Cape Flats, comprising formal and informal areas. It faces significant crime, a severe lack of housing and infrastructure, food insecurity and exposure to environmental hazards such as flooding and poor sanitation.

Over the past few years crime has surged across the area, including extortion, where small business owners are forced to pay protection fees, and frequent murders, while robberies have become the norm. Philippi is where parliamentary police committee chairperson Ian Cameron’s vehicle was attacked recently, along with fellow DA MPs Nicholas Gotsell and Lisa-Maré Schickerling.

Read more: MP Ian Cameron’s self-defence shooting incident sparks legal and ethical debate

Residents of Browns Farm in Philippi told Daily Maverick they live in fear every day because of the high number of shootings and murders. One of them, Nhlanhla Kamteni, survived an attempted carjacking after gunmen opened fire on his car at the traffic light. 

“We are living with prayers. Last Saturday I was being shot at while I was in my car with my wife, and we were heading to Nyanga. A tall man approached my car, and the next thing I heard was gunshots, and there was a taxi in front of me. I assume it was people who wanted my car; they tried to open the car, but I just drove fast,” Kamteni said.

He added: “This is not a place where people should live. It’s as if we are living a borrowed life, because every time you step outside, you are not sure whether you’ll come back or not. People die almost every day.”

Kamteni said urgent intervention is needed, and he hopes the government will deploy soldiers. 

Fear of reporting crime

A resident who did not want to be named out of fear for his safety, said he had wanted to open a small business in Browns Farm but was warned that it might end badly for him due to extortion: 

“The issue of extortion is huge. I even fear for myself to speak about this matter, because I might end up dead the next day. This has made living for us hard… I was warned that if I still value my children’s lives and mine, I should open the business outside the province because once I open it, it will take one or two months before extortionists come. It doesn’t matter what business you have; they will come, and black people are suffering. 

Read more: Fourteen suspects arrested for Mitchells Plain gang shootings that left five dead, seven injured

He added: “Residents are even scared to tell police information about the individuals committing crimes because police can take the perpetrator to Pollsmoor, but for you it won’t be even two or three days before you leave Earth. This is why we are scared to report to the police… Four to five people can die in a week in our community.”

Children recruited into crime

Philippi Community Policing Forum secretary Dumisani Qwebe provided an expanded view of Philippi’s problems.

“Philippi’s crimes range from kidnappings to housebreaking and extortion, which is a major crime. There is a challenge of young children being recruited into crime, and they end up dropping out of school. In Browns Farm there are issues of road infrastructure, and when people are not aware of them, the young boys catch you there.

“We have informal settlements such as Ramaphosa and Eyandini; these areas are really problematic. In most cases, extortionists target small informal traders and foreign nationals. Some pay R200 upwards. You can pay today, and someone else can come again later to collect the money,” Qwebe said.

“The Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town sometimes forget that townships are part of this province… For example, the issue of infrastructure and schools could have been fixed if we had things like community imbizo.”

Philippi East has been hit by a significant spike in crime, with murders increasing dramatically from 36 to 59 between January and March 2025, highlighting continuing challenges in tackling violent crime in some communities. 

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Plague of extortion and intimidation

Since April 2023, extortion and intimidation have plagued this community, forcing two waste collection companies contracted by the City of Cape Town to withdraw their services from Philippi. This left rubbish piling up in the streets, with residents turning to illegal dumping as a last resort.

In Philippi East, five men aged between the age of 22 and 30 were shot dead and set alight in a car on 7 February 2025. Two days later, a 31-year-old man was shot a number of times after allegedly paying R8,000 in extortion fees.

In March 2025, after receiving threatening letters from extortionists, many informal business owners in Khayelitsha, Philippi and Nyanga were forced to close their shops, unable to afford the protection fee. Local businesses, including salons, food stalls and appliance dealers, are forced to pay between R500 and R1,000 monthly, dealing a significant blow to their average R1,500-R2,000 profit.

The most recent extortion-related shooting occurred on Sunday, 17 August 2025, on Ngqabe Street, Lower Crossroads, Philippi East, where two men were killed and four wounded. According to police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg, the motive for the attack was believed to be extortion related.

MyCiTi targeted

Alleged extortionists also tried to derail MyCiTi construction work along Govan Mbeki Road in Philippi, but their efforts were curtailed.

This came after the Western Cape High Court, on 1 July 2025, reinstated the interim interdict against extortionists and others who are hell-bent on derailing the construction project. The interdict is in place until 21 April 2026, when the matter will be argued in court. This means that any person who threatens officials and contractors at the site or attempts to disrupt or delay the work will be arrested.

Mayoral committee member for urban mobility Rob Quintas welcomed the court’s intervention, saying: “The City will not give in to attempts by any individual or grouping to extort business and work opportunities or to hijack our projects. There are lawful and transparent processes available to local businesses and residents from the affected wards to apply for the available opportunities that form part of this construction project.

“Those who have been involved in the intimidation, death threats and other disruptive tactics are well aware of these processes as they have been briefed at numerous public information days and during other engagements. There is only one way to benefit from the available opportunities at any City project, and that is by following the legal and transparent route. This route ensures equal access to all. We will not deviate from it.”

According to JP Smith, the mayoral committee member for safety and security, since February 2020, interventions by the Law Enforcement Advancement Programme (LEAP) in Philippi have led to the recovery of 74 firearms, the most in any suburb since LEAP began, saving many lives.

He added that visible policing alone won’t solve crime; it requires effective investigations, more detectives and intelligence interventions in such areas. Socioeconomic issues in Philippi also needed attention.

“The proliferation of illegal firearms is a huge problem. Our staff have taken more than 400 firearms out of circulation in the last year, and yet gun violence remains neverending. Add to that the fact that SAPS has destroyed more than 250,000 weapons in the last five years, and it begs the question: where is the apparent unlimited supply of illicit firearms coming from?” DM