Tafelsig residents gather for a prayer march through the streets on Sunday, July 14.
A walk to the shop to buy some sugar turned deadly for a Tafelsig mother of five when she was struck in the head by a stray bullet in Real Madrid Street on Saturday night, July 13.
Tafelsig residents took to the streets to march in prayer on Sunday, following the shooting of both Mymoena Hoffman, 36, who later died in hospital, and Faizel Dirks, 22, who was shot and killed in the street just over an hour later nearby.
Ms Hoffman was on her way to the shop was she was shot at 9.30pm.
She was taken to Mitchell’s Plain District Hospital and then to Groote Schuur Hospital where she died the next day, Sunday July 14, at 4.10pm.
SAPS Western Cape spokesman Sergeant Wesley Twigg said the suspects fled the scene and were yet to be arrested.
“The motive for the attack forms part of the police investigation,” he said.
Mitchell’s Plain detectives are investigating a case of murder.
Mr Dirks was shot dead in Ajax Amsterdam Road, in Freedom Park, at 10.45pm.
Captain Frederick Van Wyk, SAPS provincial spokesman, said Mitchell’s Plain police are investigating a case of murder.
“The motive for this incident forms part of ongoing investigations,” he said.
Community worker Reva Fortune said neighbours were disturbed by the shooting.
“We are sad with all of these shootings happening in our area over past month,” she said.
Widaahd Williams, another community worker, worked with Ms Hoffman’s four older children in the Al Furqaan (The Criterion) Foundation in Tafelsig.
Ms Hoffman’s fifth and youngest child is a year old.
Ms Williams said this is the second tragedy in two years the family had endured.
In October 2022, Ms Hoffman and her family lost their house in a fire (“Fire leaves 16 people homeless”, Plainsman, October 12, 2022).
“She was an ordinary mother struggling to raise her children and to survive,” she said.
Ms Williams said residents should take to the streets to ensure this does not happen again.
“Here we have a mother hit by a stray bullet which led to her death,” she said.
She said both families were waiting for the bodies to prepare for burials.