‘He died the way he lived,’ organisation says Staggie’s murder ‘should be celebrated’

The death of former Cape Town gang boss Rashied Staggie should be celebrated because the “manner he died is the manner he lived”, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) said on Tuesday.

“So many lives have been lost through this person. So many innocent lives, particularly,” the organisation’s national spokesperson, Haroon Orrie, told News24.

“Our communities shouldn’t fear any rival gang uprisings or retaliation. This is a victory… definitely something we need to celebrate, rather than worry about what [may] happen.”

Staggie, the former leader of the Hard Livings gang, was shot in Salt River on Friday.

Understood to have been hit by a volley of bullets as he sat in a car in London Road that morning, he died on arrival at a nearby hospital.

Photos of the once-feared crime boss circulated shortly after his death, showing the tattooed Staggie in a bloody Hawaiian shirt connected to monitors.

Two unknown gunmen fired several shots at him and fled the scene on foot, the police said.

On Tuesday, police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa confirmed no arrests have been made yet.

Western Cape Anti-Gang Unit detectives were “hard at work pursuing specific leads”, Potelwa said.

Those fearing revenge attacks should not be concerned, Orrie insisted.

“The people who need to be worried are the drug dealers and gangsters who need to worry what their fate is going to be. If they are wise enough, they will take lessons in what has happened in the last few days,” he said.

“If we look at the guns that were dumped into our communities, they were in the hands of the very person that died. It can never equate.”

Rashied and his twin brother, Rashaad, were once among the most feared gang leaders on the Cape Flats.

Rashaad was shot and set alight in London Road in 1996 during a demonstration by Pagad, which was formed in the 1990s to combat gangsterism on the Cape Flats.

News24 previously reported Staggie and three other suspects faced charges in 2016 of the unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition as well as suspected stolen property.

Staggie, serving prison time for another crime, was subsequently released on full parole.

In 2003, he was jailed for 15 years for his role in the kidnapping and rape of a teenage girl, and in 2004, he was sentenced to 13 years for stealing firearms from a police armoury.

The sentences ran concurrently and Staggie served 11 years in prison.

Pastor Ivan Waldeck told eNCA Staggie had become a reborn Christian, saying he did not know who would have wanted to kill the man he had known for 20 years.

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