There was increased police visibility in Diepsloot, Johannesburg, on Sunday, with Sowetan seeing six police vehicles in different spots in just 30 minutes.
Residents said this was now normal after violence broke out in the area three weeks ago over the lack of police visibility.
On Friday, two more killings occurred in the township.
“They [police] are everywhere. What I don’t understand is why people are still able to commit crimes,” resident Lawrence Munyai said.
Josephine Mello said crime still continues in the township because of how police move around the area.
“There is the main street and there are little passages that are between the shacks in Diepsloot. Police only drive on the main road. They do not get out of their vehicles and walk between the shacks,” Mello said.
The two men who were killed on Friday, alleged drug dealers who residents say died in a hit, were killed in one of the passages between the shacks in Extension 1.
Police spokesperson Brig Brenda Muridili said police were on patrol at about 6.30pm when they responded to a shooting incident in Diepsloot Ext 1.
Muridili said three people were shot at by an assailant while seated in front of their shack.
Two of the three were fatally wounded and one escaped unharmed. Three men who were seen by witnesses fled the scene on foot. No-one has been arrested.
A neighbour is convinced that the person who fired shots at the pair simply wanted them dead.
“There was no argument or noise that tells you that people started fighting before the gunshots. It was gunshots and that was it,” he said.
The man, who only identified himself as Aaron, said he had gone to the shops and came back about 3pm.
He found his neighbours drinking next to a tuck shop.
“I heard gunshots, about five or more. I stayed in my shack for three minutes and then walked out. I saw one of the guys lying on the ground face down.
“The other guy was shot a few metres from the tuck shop but I did not go to see him. It is really scary what is happening here. This place has become too violent. I’m still living here just because I’m looking for work,” said Aaron.
Aaron said the two men, who are South Africans, were “known for selling nyaope to addicts in the neighbourhood”.
The two shacks which they allegedly used to sell from were still open when Sowetan visited the area but the gate leading into them was closed.
Three other neighbours confirmed that the men sold nyaope in the area and did not actually live in the shacks.
“I know one of the guys that was shot. He was light-skinned. He had a scar on the right of his head. They tried to kill him last year but the bullet grazed him on the temple. They shot him in his foot. This time it was very clear they wanted him dead,” a woman said.
The killing comes just weeks after police minister Bheki Cele deployed additional police and vehicles in the area after residents protested, demanding that foreigners be sent back to their countries as they blamed them for high levels of crime.
On the night of April 6, the day Cele visited the area, Elvis Nyathi was killed by a group of people demanding to see people’s passports and identity documents.
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