‘My job is to shoot’ — guns blaze in Westbury as rival gangs battle for turf

Peter says he killed for the first time shortly after his 21st birthday.

He did it for his gang, the Varados, and says he was nervous when he pulled the trigger.

Since then, he says, he has killed another five people.

Each murder was committed in the name of revenge, not for money.

“It is just for blood, and my job is to shoot,” he says, as he stares into the camera.

He doesn’t care if his rivals, the Fast Guns, see his face and hear of his deeds.

“The Almighty looks after me; that is how I survive,” he says.

Despite his wishes, Daily Maverick decided to keep his identity secret and has used a pseudonym.

It is hard to verify Peter’s claims, but those who know him say they are true.

Peter is an enforcer, a foot soldier for the Varados, one of the two main gangs that operate in Westbury, a predominantly coloured suburb in Johannesburg’s west.

His rivals are the Fast Guns, and his task is to protect a drug operation that feeds crystal meth, dagga and Mandrax 24/7 to users across this westerly swath of Johannesburg.

Last week, this intergang rivalry once again spilt onto the streets, when a shooting on Croesus Street left two teenagers dead and five others wounded. The police are still hunting the perpetrators.

The residents of Westbury have seen it all before. A mass shooting makes the news, and the police arrive in force with promises.

Deep distrust

It happened in 2023 when Cresando Otto was killed by a bullet through his heart.

The then police minister, Bheki Cele, arrived in Westbury in a cavalcade of black BMWs. In tow were the Gauteng premier, Panyaza Lesufi, the  Joburg mayor, Thapelo Amad, and a collection of police top brass.

Read more: Welcome to Westbury, where the wild west looks quite tame

“Sanitise this place; strip it and sanitise it,” Cele instructed his top brass, who were sitting in the Westbury Recreational Hall, where community members had gathered.

The minister promised a stronger police presence, that the corruption in the SA Police Service would be dealt with and that his officers would work more closely with the community.

Those extra police patrols soon disappeared, say the residents, and the shootings resumed.

This has left many with a deep distrust of the police, who, they say, are corrupt and enable the violence that plagues the suburb.

In response to last week’s killings in Westbury, National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola told police officials to deal decisively with “lolly lounges” — informal drug dens. He said that the source of the firearms used in the killings had to be discovered.

Police guns

Peter claims that the guns he used in his killings were sold to the Varados by the police. These are guns seized by police officials who, instead of handing them in at their police station, sell them on.

The police deny this.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili said, “The SAPS has a record of all firearms which have been seized during operations, and Sophiatown Police Station does not have any firearms missing as per the latest audit.”

David Bruce, an independent researcher on policing and public security, believes that dealing with Westbury’s gun problem would drastically reduce violence in the suburb.

However, the problem is that more research is needed to show how guns end up in the hands of criminals.

“We need to get clearer information on the sources of illegal firearms,” said Bruce.

“The police are always boasting about the number of firearms they’ve recovered. But the next step in investigating firearm-related crime is to improve the quality of information on what the sources of these illegal firearms are.”

Jobs, long ago

On a Monday morning, not far from the Sophiatown Police Station, a drug corner was enjoying a little downtime after the early morning rush.

Drug corners are the shopfronts of the illegal drug trade, and this one consists of an old table on a stairwell in a block of flats.

The graffiti scribbled on the walls reminds all that this is Varados’ turf.

While the corners are often the battlegrounds fought over by the rival gangs, for those who man them, they provide an income in a community where money and jobs are scarce.

The crew of this corner varies in age.

The youngest are teenagers, while the older men could be their fathers.

The older men talk of the jobs they had a long time ago.

Two of them — a former welder and a former taxi driver — now sell Mandrax and crystal meth to customers, who for the most part live in Westbury.

Dean (not his real name) has sold drugs for 21 years. “All I want to do is make money. I would leave this if I could find a job,” he said. “If there were jobs, it would sort out this drug problem.”

The previous Saturday, Dean was shot at, but the shooters missed. The Fast Guns are in a flat close by.

Residents say there have been more shootings following the recent murders.

“They want to take territory, but this is a free enterprise,” said Dean.

In Westbury, there are no lines that provide a clear divide between the Fast Guns and Varados. Each gang controls parcels of territory, sometimes surrounded by their rivals.

A distance away from where Dean works his corner and close to a flat controlled by the Fast Guns, residents, some affiliated with the Varados, are drinking hard liquor in the heat of the mid-morning sun.

Nearby, a group of Gauteng Crime Prevention Wardens, better known as the amaPanyaza, are on patrol. “Ja, I don’t know what they are supposed to do, they don’t even have guns,” laughs one resident.

Read more: Calls for Lesufi’s removal after Gauteng Crime Prevention Wardens disbanded

One of the group says he drinks to dull the pain. He lifts his shirt to show off a scar running down his belly.

In July, two Fast Guns members opened fire on him, hitting him in the stomach, leg and arm. It put him in hospital for three months.

Often, he says, he sees the men who shot him.

“What can you do?” he shrugs.

Jail or death

At the Westbury Recreation Centre, not too far away, an anti-drug campaign is being hosted by the Gauteng provincial government. The hall is filled with representatives of NGOs and government departments.

Pastor Alister Fortuin, while welcoming the initiative, shakes his head.

“It’s the wrong approach — you’ll never get someone who is on drugs or on alcohol coming to a place like this.

“Why aren’t we going house to house? That is my take. Find out why they are doing that. Then we get to a solution,” he says.

Read more: ‘Scarily predictable’ — Joburg water crisis reaches boiling point as tyres burn and rubber bullets fly

Fortuin has an unusual backstory. He is probably one of the few people who can claim to have been a member of both the Varados and the Fast Guns.

Like Peter, he was once an enforcer. He said he killed for the first time when he was 13.

Fortuin sees a little of Peter in himself.

“You become so numbstruck. I can see the way that boy is. I was like that — you just don’t care.”

Fortuin ended up in prison, serving 22 years. He found God and turned his life around.

When he was released, he discovered that 80% of the gang members he had grown up with were dead. Some of the few who had survived had risen in the ranks of the gangs. They had moved out and settled in the plusher suburbs on the West Rand.

Westbury was awash with guns and gang members who were younger and meaner.

Now Fortuin’s mission is to save the young people of Westbury.

He works with the Westbury scout group.

“If we can start with them in primary school, your grade fives, sixes and sevens, then you can shape them. When they get to high school, then they can’t be influenced.”

The problem is that the gangs are always on the lookout for recruits.

Fortuin’s son is in jail for illegally possessing a firearm and drugs. He fears that if his son returns to Westbury he will soon be back with the gangs.

“If only I could have a place where I could take all these boys. A piece of land far away, there I could empower them,” he mused. DM