Anti-drug group Pagad, a Muslim organisation, says the bombs detonated in Athlone in Cape Town on Wednesday night were probably placed by people who want to frame the organisation and derail it.
A motor dealership and a house were bombed within five minutes of one another. It was the second bombing this month near a Pagad event.
A Pagad motorcade was travelling through Athlone when the bombs when off on Wednesday night.
But Pagad spokesman Haroon Orrie said the motorcade was peaceful, and he denied any prior knowledge of the bombings.
He said Pagad had worked hard to shed the negative image of a violent vigilante group, to increase transparency and to rebuild trust and support within communities.
Asked about the possibility of rogue members carrying out attacks without a Pagad mandate, he said: “That scenario is impossible. Our motorcades are peaceful attempts at engaging communities affected by the scourge of drug dealing and gangsterism.
“We use loud-hailers to get our message across, and the response from the community has been very positive. We condemn the use of violence.”
Pagad has admitted it has increased its activities during the month of Ramadaan, with a “Ramadaan Awareness Programme”.
Pagad said on Thursday night that the police knew Pagad was not to blame.
“The police was with Pagad on the motorcade on every route we took through the streets of Bokmakierie (and) can therefore verify and testify that the Pagad motorcade had nothing to do with the blasts,” another spokesman, Cassiem Parker, charged.
“In the past the police were quick to link Pagad to incidents which they could never prove.”
Pagad also denied any involvement in the recent blasts.
Instead, Parker said: “The South African government must take full responsibility on the rise of anti-gangsterism and anti-drug groups who are striving to protect communities.
“The government, the SA Police Services and the minister of safety and security have once again failed to protect law-abiding citizens against gangsters and drug dealers.
“Communities are also fed-up with the thousands of shebeens and liquor outlets on our doorsteps. It’s a known fact these places give rise to crime and other social ills…
“It is a shame that communities are forced to organise themselves in movements like Pagad, the Mayitshe Group and others to patrol their streets against gangsterism and drug dealers.
“It is a shame that people in Manenberg, Bonteheuwel, Ocean View and many other areas are living in fear because gangsters have the free reign to shoot and kill them.”
Motorcades on Wednesdays after evening prayers during Ramadaan, form part of the programme.
In the first motorcade, on July 10 in Belgravia Estate and Rondebosch East, Pagad members picketed outside the homes of two alleged drug dealers, letting off firecrackers and using loud-hailers to issue “verbal warnings to stop their illegal activities”.
A house in Rondebosch East, near to the official convoy and police escort, was petrol-bombed, but Pagad national chairman Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim denied involvement in the attack.
No arrests have been made in that incident, police said.
Pagad has since lashed out at the police for showing “its full strength” at Pagad events.
The bomb thrown at Velocity Motors on Klipfontein Road on Wednesday night damaged nine cars. Two cars were written off. The blast caused R600 000 damage, said Niyaaz Jainoodian, the Velocity franchise’s director. He had “no idea” why it had been targeted, or by whom.
In the second bombing, of a home on Taurus Road, windows were shattered, but no was was injured. The owner declined to be interviewed.
Meanwhile, Athlone residents are trying to make sense of the attacks.
We were preparing to sleep, right after our evening prayer, and then we just heard a loud bang, saw some light flashes and assumed it was an accident. But when we got out to look the whole street was filled with smoke,” said Shireen Devous.
Devous, who lives next door to the Taurus Road house, said it had been targeted before: there had been a bomb threat last year, but police found no explosive devices.
A few houses away, another resident, who declined to be named, said the owner no longer lived there but the the owner’s mother and sister did.
“When the bomb happened the granny was still in the house. Whoever is targeting him would have known he doesn’t live there anymore.” – IOL