Tiyana van Rooyen, 13, says she is thankful to be alive after being shot in the head during a gang-related shooting in Beacon Valley.
The teenager had been playing with a friend outside a neighbour’s home on Saturday August 19, when she heard a gunshot
“As I was running from the commotion, I heard another gunshot and remembered falling,” she told the Plainsman this week.
“I heard people screaming, saying I got shot. A neighbour told me to keep breathing, and then I don’t remember anything after that.”
Just moments earlier, Tiyana and her friend had been making TikTok videos while playing in the yard.
“They shoot here regularly. I didn’t expect it to happen to me. My mom always told me to be careful when playing outside. It’s all overwhelming. I’m facing the fact that I got shot, but I’m grateful I’m alive,” said Tiyana.
Department of health spokeswoman Monique Johnstone said Tiyana had been rushed to the Mitchell’s Plain day hospital and from there to Groote Schuur Hospital.
The girl’s mother, Zola van Rooyen, 38, was in Ottery when the neighbour phoned her from the scene of the shooting to say her daughter had been shot. Tiyana was still conscious at the time.
“I remember Tiyana apologised for playing outside as well as saying she couldn’t see. I prayed. I heard noises from the machines at the hospital and I had a panic attack. After 10 minutes her sight returned,” she said.
“At Groote Schuur Hospital, they did an MRI scan and saw that the bullet couldn’t be removed as it was a dangerous procedure. On Sunday August 20, she went into cardiac arrest. The bullet put pressure on her nerves; she almost had a brain stroke, and they rushed her to theatre for an operation of five hours, and the bullet was successfully removed.”
Tiyana is now recovering at home.
“How do you raise your child in this battlefield? They’re supposed to think about us who live here,” said Ms Van Rooyen. “These gangsters come down to our streets where our children play. I don’t wish this on any mother. Why must our children be prisoners in our own areas?
“They didn’t just shoot my child, they disrupted my whole family. My daughter, 19, had to hold the fort while I took care of Tiyana. We went through a very traumatising experience.”
She thanked all those who had supported the family.
Mitchell’s Plain police did not respond to several requests for comment, but Community Safety and Police Oversight MEC Reagen Allen, who visited Beacon Valley on Thursday August 24 and spoke to residents and the media, said a man had been arrested in connection with Tiyana’s shooting.
“I wish Tiyana a speedy recovery during this time,” he said, adding that his department was concerned about the increase in murders and gang activity in the area.
According to the police’s latest quarterly crime stats for April to June, Mitchell’s Plain police station is first in the province for attempted murders, with cases for the three months doubling from 23 to 46 in the past year.
The station is 11th in the province for murders, with 23 cases, up from 20.
“Seventeen cases out of 23 were gang-related,” said Mr Allen.
He said his department worked with SAPS to ensure the Anti-Gang Unit had the support it needed, and the deployment of officers under the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) – a joint effort by the Province and the City – provided “extra visibility and boots on the ground”.
Dean Ramjoomia, founder and director of the Nehemiah Call Initiative, a non-profit organisation helping people and families with social ills, said Beacon Valley remained a red zone – an area deemed too unsafe for emergency medical services to visit without a police escort – and he asked what steps had been taken to rid it of that status.
“It’s alarming. We need a proactive policing measurable prevention strategy. We’ve somehow normalised crime through our behaviour. There is no adjusting behaviour within our society. The religious leaders need to be more practical by getting involved and being intentional. We need to start holding ourselves to greater accountability,” he said.
Cape Flats Safety Forum secretary Lynn Phillips said they had seen an increase in shooting during load shedding.
“We have seen that illegal guns are roaming our streets daily, and this contributes to high levels of trauma in our children as they’re not safe to go to school at times. Shooting happens whilst pupils are going to and from school,” she said.
“I’m strongly of the opinion that SAPS alone can’t control crime. It should be a multifaceted approach with all stakeholders to find amicable solutions. SAPS needs to involve the community and make use of technology,” she said, adding that it was also important to tackle social ills “to see a better community and not politicking with people’s livelihood”.
In other crime categories, Mitchell’s Plain police station was sixth in the province for sexual offences, which held steady at 45 cases, and despite contact crimes dropping from 264 to 212 cases, it was still second in the province for that category. The Lentegeur police precinct was 15th in the province for contact crimes, which rose from 94 to 110 cases.
