Crime-buster’s death angst

LESS than 24 hours before he was gunned down, prominent Port Elizabeth businessman Naeem Desai told his brother he did not feel safe. Described as the “bravest hero and leader”, a lion, and the “Rambo of PE”, the popular northern areas business owner was murdered outside a Helenvale spaza shop at about 6am yesterday.

Police were monitoring the situation in the northern areas last night after threats of retaliation and a call to action circulated on social media after the shooting.

Desai, 47, was shot twice in the upper body while sitting in the driver’s seat of a Jadeed’s Bread delivery van.

A shopowner in Barberry Street, Bethelsdorp, where alleged drug dealer Donovan “Staal” Berry, 47, was killed last week, warned: “There is still going to be a lot of killing, particularly now that one of the Desais was killed.

“You can’t just kill one of those brothers and think it is just going to be left there,” the man, who did not want to be identified, said.

“These gangsters have no idea the huge amount of resources these Desais have access to.

“It was a very bad idea. And it’s just a matter of time before they retaliate.”

The killing, which is being investigated by the gang task team as some of the suspects seen fleeing from the scene are believed to be gangsters, came a day after Desai told his older brother, Hassen, 65, that he felt uneasy. “Naeem was a lot like our father,” Hassen said yesterday, as the family prepared to bury Desai.

“He was a courageous man who always stood his ground.

“He had a stranglehold on the criminals in our area.

“He came to me [Wednesday morning] and told me he was under a lot of pressure and did not feel safe.

“I told him to stay at the office, that we could send a driver out with security to deliver bread along his route.

“But Naeem refused because he had faith in the community he served.

“I know the police say it looks like a robbery, but the way my brother was killed, and his involvement in crime-fighting, painted a target on his back.”

More than 500 people went to the Darul Uloom Mosque in Malabar for Desai’s funeral yesterday afternoon.

Among those present were high-ranking police officials, community policing members from across the city and Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Danny Jordaan.

By midday, WhatsApp messages asking residents to take action against gangsters were circulating, while others warned them to keep their children indoors.

Desai’s death has also reignited calls for the relaunch of People Against Drugs and Violence, which came into being in the 1990s to clamp down on gangsterism but has been dormant for years.

Police spokeswoman Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said Desai – of Desai’s Bakery in West End, which delivers bread around the northern areas through Jadeed’s Bread – had been shot in Bramlin-Markman Street while delivering bread.

“While his two co-workers [assistants] were inside a spaza shop they heard gunshots fired,” she said.

“They rushed out of the shop and saw four people running away from the driver’s side of the truck.

“The deceased’s firearm and cellphone were taken and the motive for the shooting appears to be robbery,” she said.

Meanwhile, tributes flowed as news of Desai’s death spread.

Desai, whose family owned several businesses around the Bay, was a member of the Malabar Community Policing Forum, Neighbourhood Watch and a communitybased nonprofit organisation, Malabar Patrols, which started in 2012.

Members patrol the area on the lookout for crime.

“Malabar Patrols is extremely sad to tell you that we have lost one of our bravest warriors,” it said in a post.

“A fearless man. A true hero. Always there for everybody. He was the Rambo of PE. Any trouble you call him.”

Dawood Beydon, who knew Desai for more than 20 years, said: “I heard [the news] on my way to work and immediately turned around so that I would be able to attend the funeral.

“I knew him as someone who always had a lot of time for those in need.

“My cousin had cancer and was bedridden and, in early January, he actually arranged a wheelchair for her.

“That was the kind of person he was, and that is how he will be remembered.”

Marlon Daniels said Desai was known as someone willing to help those in need.

“I was speaking to a woman who lives in the squatter camp outside Malabar and she told me that he had asked for her CV because he was going to organise a job at the bakery for her,” Daniels said.

“He was well-known in that area as he would supply bread for those who could not afford the normal prices.

“When they were hungry, they would knock on his door and he would always be ready to help.

“He was always watching out for his community. He would be the bird’s eye around there,” Daniels said.

The WhatsApp messages calling on residents to take action started circulating as arrangements for Desai’s funeral yesterday got under way.

“This is an emergency situation and we demand the involvement of every able man,” one message read.

“We cannot leave this. We have to take action.

“If we leave this, they [gangsters and criminals] are going to walk all over us ... please be ready for some very serious operations.”

Another message encouraged residents to keep their children indoors as gangster dens would be petrol-bombed.

It is not known who initiated the messages.

At the same time police officials, who were aware of the messages circulating, were scouring parts of Helenvale for information on the shooters to prevent vigilantism.

“We are appealing to the community to allow police space in the investigation of the case,” Janse van Rensburg said.

“We are also urging the community not to resort to any forms of vigilantism and to work with the investigator.

“The police are on alert and have deployed members in the area and the situation is being monitored,” she said.